Do you know how many generations insulating glass has gone through in its past and present lives?

Although insulating glass is now very common, do you know when it was invented? How many generations of technological updates have gone through since the emergence of insulated glass to become what it is now?

The production technology of insulating glass first appeared in the United States in the late 19th century. At that time, the appearance of this type of glass was still due to military reasons. At that time, American sentinels often found water mist or frost on the glass in winter, which would block the view. It was only for this reason that the original prototype of insulating glass was born.

So, how many changes and upgrades have gone through since the emergence of the first generation of insulated glass, to reach the appearance of the commonly seen insulated glass today? In fact, there have been about three technological upgrades during this period, especially after the rapid development of the chemical industry and the emergence of sealants.

Fusion welding method for insulating glass

The fusion welding method uses a high-frequency electric furnace to simultaneously heat the edges of two pieces of glass to soften, and then uses a pressing machine to press the edges of the two pieces of glass together into a whole, and fills the middle cavity with dry gas. The insulating glass produced in this way is the earliest generation of insulating glass. The advantage of this production method is that there will be absolutely no air leakage after fusion, and its durability is very high. However, the disadvantage is that the product specifications are very small, and it is usually only two layers of glass, making it difficult to achieve mechanized production.

Welding method of insulating glass

The production process of this type of insulated glass is to coat the glass surface with metallic tin and copper, and connect the glass to the lead sealing frame through metal welding. This method is often used for customization, and the resulting glass often has a metallic color. During the production process, a lot of non-ferrous metals are used, which is very expensive and difficult to promote on a large scale

Adhesive bonding method for insulating glass

This manufacturing process involves bonding two or more pieces of glass together with aluminum spacers containing desiccants using a single or double layer of sealant. The core of this type of insulated glass lies in the sealing performance of the sealant. Currently, the service life of insulated glass made of sealant is generally more than 10 years, which is also the most common production process for insulated glass on the market. At the same time, this process has formed a new concept of double sealing. The advantages of this bonding method are: ① production process is relatively difficult ② cost is controllable ③ product is widely used and adaptable ④ the raw materials required for production, such as aluminum spacers, sealant, desiccants, etc., can be subject to actual quality monitoring on the production site.