A new way to add value to glasses we supply for our ranges of curved doors, curved glass, balustrades and juliet balconies will be to add to the glass a hydrophobic “self cleaning” glass coating.
We have been researching this area for almost two years and at present a new line is being constructed at the factory:
A patented system
A new and patented system using a specially constructed chamber using CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition – where a chemical coating is applied in a closed chamber by vaporizing it). This special chamber or room measuring 4.0m X 4.0m X 3.0m in height is almost completed and will be tested and licensed in the next month.
A significant value
We believe that this new coating system to the glass offers a significant VALUE with an easy-to-clean feature, more like the Teflon® concept on a cooking pan, plus all other benefits of our coating such as:
- added brilliance
- impact and scratch resistance
As we have realized through our research we do not believe in the concept of SELF-CLEANING as it is clearly misleading and unrealistic and its marketing has been actually a failure.
There’s no such thing as truly self-cleaning since the required “sheeting effect” of the hydrophilic (water attracting) coatings, as opposed to the “hydrophobic” (water repellent) coatings, works under a completely controlled environment and not as such in real life applications when you have the different variables of precipitation intensity and gravity, sunlight effects, etc.
Used by advanced glass companies
This coating system is already in use by some of the most advanced glass companies in Europe and has been used on some large projects;
- Barcelona convention center (Spain)
- New York 40 Bond st project (USA)
- Montreal convention center (Canada)
- Guadalajara shopping center (Mexico)
Not a traditional CVD
An important point on the CVD chamber process is that it is NOT a traditional CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition) as it does NOT require Vacuum, which makes it that much more efficient and cost-effective. Our system then has:
- NO vacuum
- NO curing time (the reaction is instantaneous, under 2 seconds)
- NO special cleaning other than removing grease or oily residues
- A coating on BOTH sides of the glass at the same process!
More for our customers money
This is a significant investment for the company but we believe that this aligns with giving the customer more for their money and the reduced cleaning requirement is “greener” in the fact that less chemicals will need to be used in the cleaning process.