Glass Laminating Film Resin from Nuplex Construction Products

Go into the CBD of any city, and in every direction you look you'll see acres and acres of laminated glass.

The laminating process is very simple. A film - usually with UV-blocking properties - is placed over one sheet of glass, another sheet of glass placed on top, and heat is applied to melt the film and adhere it to both surfaces, bonding them together.

The resulting glass is stronger and more soundproof than a single sheet, and also reduces glare.

This process is also extraordinarily demanding. Unless both sheets of glass are extremely smooth, bubbles will appear between glass and film. Besides the aesthetic issue, it also weakens the bond.

However, If you want to laminate two pieces of curved glass, it is a much more difficult process. Not only do both surfaces still have to be smooth, they must also be a perfect fit.

A Nuplex team in the Australasian R&D laboratories took on this issue a few years ago, and has come up with a new approach - based on unsaturated polyester resin - that is revolutionising glass lamination.

The great breakthrough of the team was to develop a completely novel application. They found a way to pump resin between two pieces of glass using an extrusion process. Once cured it creates an immediate, flexible bond.

Because the resin is applied as a liquid, any minor imperfections between the two surfaces are simply filled and because the resin is transparent it is impossible to see any irregularities in the glass.

Not only does this give better results than film, it is also faster to create a finished product.

Film comes in a limited range of colours, the Nuplex product is clear and can have any coloured dye added to it. And it's so strong that it is already being used in bulletproof glass for banks and in safety glasses.

Originally developed out of discussions with Nuplex's Australasian customers, the product is now being exported around the world; most notably to China, where fast growing cities like Shanghai are making full use of the exciting design possibilities it allows.