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Iconic Glass Structures – Langen Foundation

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Iconic Glass Structures – Langen Foundation

Iconic Glass Structures – Langen Foundation

The Langen Foundation is an art museum located in Berlin on the former NATO Hombroich-Neuss Missile Station. The Langen Foundation building is part of the larger Museum Insel Hombroich complex. It is made from reinforced concrete, steel and glass. The building’s design includes a double “skin” of glass and concrete.

First opened to the public in 2004, the Langen Foundation features two partially underground exhibition buildings housing three major exhibition spaces. The entire Langen Foundation Museum offers about 1,300 square meters of space, and its collection is focused on contemporary art.

The museum was designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. The museum was built to house the art collection of Viktor and Marianne Langen. The collection consists of about 500 pieces of Japanese art, the bulk of which were created between the 12th and 19th centuries. Viktor Langen was an automotive engineer and held a number of patents. He regularly traveled to Japan, and that spurred his wife’s interest in Japanese art.

Initially, the couple’s collection was housed in Switzerland, but Marianne funded the construction of the Langen Foundation building to effect the relocation of her collection. She died shortly before construction of the building was finished. In addition to their collection of Japanese art, the couple also collected works from European artists, including Cezanne, Picasso, Warhol, Kandinsky and Bacon, among others.

Ando built the building as a sculptural work. The building includes a large glass and concrete rotunda, a concrete cube and a long glass and concrete veranda. The entire complex is designed to integrate into its surroundings and offers a peaceful venue that facilitates the contemplation of the museum’s collection.

Visitors to the complex enter a narrow doorway in a semicircular concrete and steel wall. Once through the doorway, the museum building, surrounded by a contemplative pool awaits. The glass envelope covers the interior concrete core.

The greater museum complex was rehabilitated following its initial construction as a NATO missile installation. The base was purchased by Karl-Heinrich Müller following its decommissioning in 1993. Müller did not want to erase the facility’s military history, but wanted to create a new purpose for the space. The finished design preserved military elements, including the bunkers, the observation tower, the halls and the landscaping that had disguised the military nature of the base. Other parts of the initial design, including razor-wire fencing, spotlights and bullet-proof glass were removed to open the space and make it more welcoming to the public. In addition to the Langen Foundation building, other new construction has also been completed on the base, and several sculptures now complement the grounds.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Andreas Lischka, via Flickr.com

Under-glass scanner could make all-glass phone

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Under-glass scanner could make all-glass phone

Under-glass scanner could make all-glass phone

Apple, Galaxy, Samsung and other mobile phone manufacturers have been promoting new all-glass versions of their products that are currently in development. One of the challenges they face is getting rid of the home button, which takes up valuable real estate on the front face of the phone.

New under-glass scanners may be the key to saying goodbye to the button. Instead of going for the home button, the phones may include an under-glass scanner than provides touch-based control of the phone. Synaptics announced an in-glass scanner earlier this year, that was designed to work with a glass surface at least .3 mm thick.

At that thickness, the device will work only with the scanner in a fixed location on the screen. Essentially, that limitation requires the scanner to be an analog for the home button. The button is gone, but the user must still return to the scanner’s fixed location to authenticate and issue secure controls.

Synaptic announced earlier this month a new evolution of the under-glass scanner. The latest version works with a glass thickness of .1mm, and that’s thin enough to be used in mobile phones and other hand-held devices. It’s also thin enough to enable the under-glass scanner to be incorporated into the lighted display area of the phone.

Future designs will eventually be able to authenticate the user from anywhere on the surface of the screen, creating the much-desired but not-yet-available edge-to-edge phone. The under-glass scanner that recognizes and authenticates the user from anywhere is still a few design generations away, but it’s definitely closer to the store shelves than it was earlier this year.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Jose Luis Agapito, via Flickr.com

Glass insulator may advance stainless steel use

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Glass insulator may advance stainless steel use

Glass insulator may advance stainless steel use

Some materials are undeniably attractive. Others are undeniably useful. Stainless steel is one of those materials that is both. But that doesn’t mean stainless steel is ideal for all circumstances. Stainless steel is extremely resistant to corrosion, but it’s also highly conductive, so insulating the contents of a stainless steel container is exceptionally important. That’s where ceramic glass insulation comes into play.

Being able to seal the stainless steel completely with ceramics is tricky, because heat is often used to attach the ceramic insulators to the stainless steel. Glass and stainless steel behave very differently in the presence of heat. Glass ceramics are brittle and stainless steel expands rapidly.

Researchers at the Sandia National Laboratory have developed a technique that can help bond glass ceramics and stainless steel together in a way that doesn’t put the ceramics at risk of shattering. By doping the ceramics with an oxidizing agent that reacts with alloys in the stainless steel at the point of ceramic contact, they can gradually build a strong bond between the two materials.

The team tested about two dozen different oxidants before determining the two that performed the best. Their goal was to allow the oxidant interfacing to expand at a rate that was similar to the stainless steel. By manipulating the reaction, the scientists could protect the glass during the bonding process, and limit or eliminate the possibility of shattering.

The team intends to continue research to determine whether the technique can be applied to bonding processes in other dissimilar materials. If they’re successful, their work could be used in energy, aerospace and electronics.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Chris D 2006, via Flickr.com

More cities curbing glass recycling

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More cities curbing glass recycling

More cities curbing glass recycling

Glass is a hard sell in the recycling world. Many cities are removing glass from the list of accepted materials in their curbside recycling programs. Without recycling, that leaves a limited number of options for discarded container glass. In some respects, Coeur d’Alene, ID is ahead of the curve on this issue. They’ve landfilled glass directly for nearly a decade.

North Idaho doesn’t have any glass recycling facilities, and shipping Coeur d’Alene’s containers elsewhere for recycling is too expensive. According to city officials, the closest recycling facilities are in Oregon or across the border in Canada. As a compromise, the city’s new waste hauler plans to crush the container glass it collects and use it as landfill cover. Curbside collection of glass is still off the table, but the waste hauler will place collection containers around the city where residents can deposit their containers.

Once the glass is crushed, it will be used as a daily cover for the city’s landfill, to cut down on odors, trap gases from decay, and discourage trash-scattering by the wind, rodents and birds. Some of the crushed glass could also be recycled, if the company can find a buyer and develop a transportation strategy. Crushed glass, known as cullet, could also make its way into paving materials as a replacement for potash.

A small, members-only recycling company in Coeur d’Alene takes containers and accepts donations from members. The company sorts and crushes the glass, and returns it to members, who use it in a variety of ways, including landscaping, artwork and construction. Currently, that group is limited by the size of their facility, and say that if they had more space, they could accept more of the city’s waste glass.

Spokane, WA is also among the growing number of US cities that is landfilling glass. The city, which switched to single-stream recycling in 2012, contracts with Waste Management to provide recycling services. The company says it can’t find enough interested buyers in waste glass to make a profit on the material.

In the past, Spokane has used pulverized glass in road construction, but the amount needed for those projects is far less than the city collects. So for now, the glass will be pulverized and used as landfill cover, while the city continues to look for more environmentally responsible outlets for container glass.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: H. Kopp, via Flickr.com

Zhangjiajie Wants to Top Glass Bottomed Bridge

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Zhangjiajie Wants to Top Glass Bottomed Bridge

Zhangjiajie Wants to Top Glass Bottomed Bridge

The Zhangjiajie Grand Canyon Bridge opened to much fanfare in August. Too much fanfare, in fact. Officials at the park had to close the glass bottomed bridge for about a month to rethink their strategy for moving tens of thousands of visitors across the 1,300-foot span, which is perched about 1,000 feet off the ground.

The number of daily visitors has been capped at 8,000 – about one-tenth of the number of guests that showed up daily when the bridge first opened. In addition, parking and park maintenance has gotten a little facelift.

Buoyed by the popularity of the attraction, the park will now construct a “disappearing” glass bridge that’s designed to blend in with the park’s natural surroundings. The new bridge – a product of the Paris architectural firm, Martin Duplantier Architectes, will cost a cool $4.2 million to build.

The new structure isn’t an all-glass affair. It will be situated between two sandstone cliffs, and will feature mirrored stainless steel walls. The floor will be a reflective black stone combined with glass for the ultimate overhead view of the canyon. Additional hospitality structures (a guest house and café) will be included as part of the package.

The company’s design was selected recently following an architectural competition held in 2015. The new glass bridge is part of a larger plan to improve the tourist experience at the park. The firm did not indicate when construction on the bridge will begin, or how long it will take to complete.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Martin Duplantier Architectes

Chattanooga Votes To Replace Glass Bridge with Stainless Steel

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Chattanooga Votes To Replace Glass Bridge with Stainless Steel

Chattanooga Votes To Replace Glass Bridge with Stainless Steel

The Chattanooga City Council voted earlier this month to replace the glass panels in the Holmberg bridge with slip-resistant stainless steel panels. The push to remodel the pedestrian walkway, which was opened in 2005, is in response to the City’s annual $10,000-$20,000 expenditures to replace cracked and broken glass along the surface of the bridge.

The bridge consists of 86 glass panels, but they won’t all be replaced right away. Instead, initial replacement contract will cover just twelve sections. Additional stainless steel replacements will be added as needed, and as the City budget permits.

City engineers say that the glass panels are simply prone to breakage. According to the Public Works Department, the City has replaced 51 glass panels since 2009. The City has been looking for alternatives to the current glass materials since 2013, hoping to find another transparent material that was more robust. The City settled on a stainless steel solution after consulting with materials specialists from around the country.

The bridge was named to honor Ruth and William Holmberg, former publishers of the Chattanooga Times newspaper. The Holmbergs were ardent supporters of the arts, and the bridge draws people to the Bluff View Arts District, and provides pedestrian access over Riverview Parkway.

Although the panels consist of multiple layers of laminated glass, the City found that the middle layer of the panel consistently broke. Engineers believe that vandalism, changes in the weather, and unusual wear-and-tear from skateboarders and cyclists is responsible for the ongoing breakage issues. The City anticipates that the entire walking surface of the bridge could be overhauled in 1-2 years.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Larry Miller , via Flickr.com

Chinese Auto Glass Manufacturer Outsources Jobs

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Chinese Auto Glass Manufacturer Outsources Jobs

Chinese Auto Glass Manufacturer Outsources Jobs

In a twist, a Chinese auto glass manufacturing firm has moved 2,000 jobs from its Chinese facilities to a former General Motors assembly plant in Moraine, OH. The Fuyao Glass Industry Group, owned by Chinese billionaire Cao Dewang, reopened the plant in October and could add as many as 1,000 more workers in the coming months.

The Moraine, OH assembly plant had produced small trucks and SUVs, including the S-10, the GMC Envoy and the Chevrolet TrailBlazer. GM idled the facility in 2008, and Fuyao Glass Industry Group purchased it in 2014.

The company, which supplies auto glass for both General Motors and Volkswagen, found it less expensive to manufacture glass in the United States than to manufacture it in China and ship it to the United States.

The company reported profits of $370 million in 2015. Dewang made the difficult decision to move the company’s North American operations to Moraine in response to what he characterized as China’s high taxes and high labor costs.

In addition to reducing Dewang’s overall costs, the move may shield the company from onerous tariffs being considered by the incoming Trump administration. Fuyao Glass has invested more than $1B in its US operations.

Glass is typically produced locally in relation to the manufacturer’s target market, so it’s not entirely surprising that Fuyao Glass would want a North American production facility. Producing glass locally allows the manufacturer to reduce its transportation costs, improve transportation logistics and respond more easily to market demand.

According to Dewang, he pays about 35% more in taxes on his facilities in mainland China than he does on his facilities in the United States. Additionally, the Chinese government has increased social welfare payments and value-added taxes on manufacturing firms. Dewang says that wages in the US are about 8 times higher than the wages he pays to workers in China, but the tax assessments increase his overall costs for Chinese manufacturing.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Truck PR, via Flickr.com

Iconic Glass Structures – Sage Gateshead

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Iconic Glass Structures – Sage Gateshead

Iconic Glass Structures – Sage Gateshead

This week, we look at Sage Gateshead, a glass and steel concert venue in Gateshead, UK. The building opened in 2004, and is currently leased to the North Music Trust. The uniquely styled building is part of a larger arts complex, which also includes the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art and the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

While Sage Gateshead hosts its share of chamber music performances, the venue also serves musicians in a wide range of genres. The building was designed by Foster and Parters, which presented the winning design in a competition. Although the building did not open until 2004, planning for the space began more than 10 years prior to its inaugural performance. The final construction cost exceeded $86 million, and was paid for largely through government grants.

Initially intended as a chamber music performance hall, Sage Gateshead morphed into a more flexible venue to accommodate regional performers and a variety of musical styles. The venue has hosted classical, pop, rock, hip hop, jazz, indie and acoustical performances.

The building houses two main performance halls that seat 1,750 and 450 guests respectively. Sage Gateshead also has a smaller rehearsal facility. The three performance spaces are key to the rest of the building’s design. The rest of the building’s facilities were designed to accommodate the acoustics of the performance spaces.

While the complex is housed under a single glass and steel skin, the interior of the building reveals three distinct buildings under one roof. The glass and steel outer structure does not actually touch any of the three performance spaces. In addition, the interior buildings were constructed using a special, acoustic-friendly concrete mixture. Ceiling panels and curtains in the buildings can be moved or adjusted to change the acoustic profile of a performance space. Spaces are reconfigured based on the type of musical performance.

Aside from the performance spaces, the building also houses the Music Education Centre, where students of all skill levels take instrumental music lessons. The Music Education Centre also offers workshops and public programs. The building also houses a recording studio, a community space and a public audio library.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Wojtek Gurak , via Flickr.com

Could “bendable” glass lead to a folding glass phone?

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Could "bendable" glass lead to a folding glass phone?

Could “bendable” glass lead to a folding glass phone?

The goal of making smart phones lighter and more flexible could be one step closer to reality, thanks to bendable glass. Samsung first introduced bendable glass at the Consumer Electronics Show in 2013. So far, that hasn’t led to foldable glass phones, but some industry experts think that the company could put a foldable glass phone on the market in 2017.

Samsung isn’t the only technology company that’s interested in foldable glass. Apple has long been rumored to be considering the development of a bendable glass phone. The company is already working on an all-glass version of the iPhone.

The goal is to create a foldable device that’s the size of a phone when folded, and the size of a tablet when it is opened up. Such a phone would use OLED technology, and would more than likely feature a curved screen.

Samsung has already introduced a curved glass phone to the market, in the form of the company’s Galaxy S7 Edge, but the company says that its consumer research shows that the end user values the size of a standard phone, but welcomes the extra real estate the phone offers.

The allure of glass has also charmed Apple, which is working on the all-glass iPhone. The company is expected to release the iPhone 8 in late 2017 or early 2018, but there’s no indication that the iPhone 8 will be foldable, or that it will include bendable glass of any kind.

Bendable glass isn’t exactly new. Fiber optic cabling is bendable to some extent, though it’s certainly not foldable. Bendable glass allows designers to create a screen, something that’s never been done before, and it may allow them to create a complete foldable design that provides the form of a standard smart phone that’s expandable to a functional tablet when desired.

Certainly, there are smartphones of varying sizes, but the size of a phone (or a tablet) determines its functionality. If a tablet surface is too small to type, for example, its functionality – and therefore its appeal – is limited. Nothing is announced as far as products or even projects, but it’s worthwhile to note that Samsung has already shown bendable glass. It makes sense that consumers will be seeing that on the market sooner rather than later.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: MomentiMedia, via Flickr.com

Smart glass can tint automatically or manually

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Smart glass can tint automatically or manually

Smart glass can tint automatically or manually

Scientists and materials engineers have been working with “smart” glass for awhile. Smart glass can change its opacity, usually when an electric current is applied to particles embedded in the glass. Photochromic glasses can tint when they detect UV light. Kinestral, a startup based in Hayward, CA, has developed a new type of electrochromic glass that can change opacity either on demand or automatically, based on conditions or programming.

According to the company, the new glass is virtually indistinguishable from regular glass when it is in its untinted state. Halio glass can be tinted manually, using a wall-mounted control panel. It also responds to voice commands and requests from a smartphone app. In addition, the glass is “programmable.” It can respond to a preset program from the control pad, or it can be programmed to respond to conditions including weather changes, the time of day, or the presence of sunlight.

That’s not Halio’s only set of tricks. Individual panes of glass can be controlled separately, meaning that one panel, or a group of panels can be tinted, while others appear perfectly clear. In addition, users can select the depth of shading that each window achieves. The glass can also be used for entirely interior applications to provide privacy or shading for offices, meeting rooms and conference rooms.

The shading effect isn’t instantaneous. It takes about five minutes for the glass to change from its lightest to darkest shading. Kinestral hasn’t yet put Halio on the market; the glass will be available for purchase in certain regions starting in 2017. The company has not yet said where the product roll-out will start, but it intends to make the glass available globally in 2018.

One inexpensive way to control the transmission of heat and light is through the use of Glassprimer™ glass paint. Glassprimer™ glass paint is specially formulated to adhere to glass surfaces permanently. Once cured, Glassprimer™ glass paint will not chip, fade or peel, even in direct sunlight. The paint can be tinted to match the paint palette of any major paint manufacturer, and comes in low-VOC oil- and water-based formulations.

If you’d like more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: seier + seier, via Flickr.com