contemporary techniques in architectural glass - International ...

Recommendations
49
Lamination
Jose Castrillo has been successfully laminating glass designs for about twenty years and said
that he has not had any problems. Some of his windows have stacks of glass 40 mm thick
laminated to the backing glass. He tends to use a bright finish acid etched glass, up to 20mm
thick as the base glass. Jose said that he has had no problems with the resin that he uses,
the weight of some of the pieces that he laminates would be an extreme test.
The Bayer building windows are more than ten years old and look to be in good condition.
The thick backing glass would help to keep the panels stable and reduce the U.V. rays effect
on the resin. The resin Jose uses is a commercial three part resin similar to those made by
Glasslam and Siglam. These types of resin are made for commercial glass lamination and
are therefore strong and relatively affordable. There are also U.V. set resins, however only the
catalyst cure types seem to be used for this type of work. The resins have a strong odour
and the fumes should not be inhaled. They should be used in a properly ventilated room and
appropriate P.P.E. should be worn.
Unfortunately Jose did not have any projects currently under construction so it was not
possible to see first hand how he used the resin. From what he said via the interpreter
and from what was observed it seemed that he only props uneven pieces of glass prior to
pouring the resin. The resin under the laminated pieces was certainly thin but was enough
to hold them securely.
Derix studio uses silicone for laminating all their work. Whilhelm Derix the owner of the studio
said that they changed to silicone after having problems with resin. He did not say what brand
of resin they had been using or how it was used. They now use Wacker 612 Sil Gel for major
jobs. There is also a silicone made by Bohle, a German glazing supply company. Both of
these are two part silicones and are expensive. The Bohle product is sold as a glass bonding
silicone where as the Wacker product is primarily used to protect electrical components.
For small lamination jobs Derix will use a clear silicone in a tube. This is spread with a spatula
prior to attaching the top piece of glass. The Sil Gel is used where multiple pieces are being
laminated. The silicone is mixed then needs to be de-aired in a vacuum chamber otherwise
there will be air bubbles in the silicone bed. A dam is made with tape around the edge of
the glass, the silicone is poured in and allowed to level. The top pieces are then set into the
silicone ensuring that they do not touch the backing glass. When dry the excess silicone is
removed and visible edges cut back.he only props uneven pieces of glass prior to pouring
the resin.