Safety Glass as Design Objects

The picture shows individual glass design thanks to a combination of self-adhesive lead strips, coloured films and a real glass application.
Pictures: TGK

New, innovative products mean safety glass can make an individual design statement thanks to skilled finishing.

In modern interior design glass products are used in numerous applications to create visual accents. Glass doors, partition walls and wall coverings are everyday features of today’s residential and business interiors. To ensure user safety these products are made using toughened safety glass (TSG) or laminated toughened glass (LTG). For low-cost enhancement of this glass the company Tiffany Glaskunst GmbH (TGK) has added a series of new products to its range.

Colours for Sandblasted Glass

One variation of glass finishing is sandblasting. The translucent, roughened glass surface achieved here usually remains untreated and forms an effective complement to nearby untreated glass. To add colour to the sandblasted surfaces TGK now offers NanoColor, a new colour system. The paint is simply applied to the treated surfaces with a microfibre sponge. Masking areas of glass allows you to achieve very exact lines and colour transitions. Once the paint is dry the glass is ready for use immediately.

At present eight different colours are available that can be mixed with each other. For even finer shading the NanoColor paints can be thinned with a transparent surface coating. The new paints give sandblasted surfaces not only an individual colour design but also reliable surface protection. The nano-technology based coating is largely UV resistant and cannot be removed with standard household detergents.

Sandblasted surfaces can be given even more individual style than with the single-colour NanoColors thanks to the new NanoArt paints. These are based on NanoColor paints but are very concentrated. With the products in this series sandblasted surfaces can be painted like a canvas. However, NanoArt colours are not suitable for large-area applications.

Individual Real Glass Applications

The new product series Applikas offers many design possibilities for unfinished safety glass. This product innovation features a modular system of glass elements in differing size, shape and colour. The Applikas elements are produced stress-free and boast a totally smooth, highly polished back. This makes them ideal for affixing to safety glass. The Applikas glass elements can be used both in combination with other facets or in conjunction with the self-adhesive lead strips and coloured films. These real glass applications are affixed using UV adhesive, special silicon or epoxy resin adhesive.

Versatile Colour Films

Coloured films for applying to glass have been on the market for a long time but the combination with new enhanced materials also opens up more interesting application ideas for these products. For instance, you can position differently coloured films next to one another on portions of glass and finally cover the edges with lead strips. Combining real glass applications from the Applikas product series or facets makes individual glass design possible.

Easy-to-Apply Lead Strips

Very appealing effects in leaded glass style can be achieved using the new self-adhesive lead strips. These flexible lead strips are offered in different widths and surfaces and can be fixed permanently to the glass surface using a special adhesive. This design medium can be used both inside and out. The adhesive lead strips are resistant to weather and ageing. A special coating procedure was developed to give the lead core the strip colour.