Qwares® is a family-owned and operated structural glass system in the world’s largest industrial city – Suzhou, China. We specialize in custom fabricated structural glass hardware for storefronts, windows, doors, curtain wall systems, skylights, solar control windows, sunrooms, conservatories, and patio cover systems. We offer many different types of specialty glass solutions, such as:
- Facade Glass Panels & Vertical Glass Mullions
- Glass Patches & Spider Fittings
- Structural Glass
- Solar Control Windows
- SkylightsConservatory Roofing
- Curtain Wall System
- Sunroom/Patio Cover Systems
- We will show you how to install the structural glazing glass wall step by step below.
Table of Contents
- Advantage of structural glass wall
- Good Permeability
- Good Safety
- Strong Sense of Craftsmanship
- Structural glass curtain wall installation process
- Welding and installation of structural steel components
- Glass spider fittings positioning, installation, adjustment
- Structural glass wall panel installation and control
- Glass wall gluing engineering and quality inspection
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Advantage of structural glass wall
After installation, the point-fix glass curtain wall has the following characteristics.
Good Permeability
Since a large piece of glass is connected to the supporting structure through several points, the area where the line of sight is blocked is reduced to a minimum, and the view is opened to a maximum.
Good Safety
After tempering, the glass is fixed to the support structure by metal components in an adjustable way, and the sealant only plays a sealing role without considering the force, so even under the external impact, it is impossible for the whole glass to fall.
Good Flexibility
Metal structural glass hardware allows each connection point to rotate freely, and also allows a certain displacement to adjust some unavoidable errors in the building, so that the glass will not produce installation stress and can adapt to the deformation of the supporting structure after the load so that the glass is in a good state of force.
Strong Sense of Craftsmanship
Point structure fittings can be used in many forms with endless variations, good craftsmanship and artistry, and can fully reflect the modernization of the building.
Environmental protection and energy saving
The point fixed glass wall is the pursuit of bright style, so the use of glass to choose very little light pollution of white glass, low radiation glass, or insulating glass, while installing indoor or outdoor shading system, can greatly reduce energy consumption.
Structural glass curtain wall installation process
- Site measurement
- Project Placement
- Installation of steel structure beam
- Installation of steel base
- Base plate welding
- Spider fittings positioning
- Installation of structural spider
- Fastening of glass spider
- Anti-corrosion treatment
- Installation of tempered glass components
- Gluing of exterior walls
- Seal the top, sides, and bottom
- Clean up
- Inspection and acceptance
- Operation points of structural glass wall installation
- Site measurement
The construction site adopts laser latitude and longitude meter, plumb bob, level meter, photoelectric distance meter and other instruments to measure and place the line, taking the control point as the benchmark, connecting each pair of horizontal control points and vertical points with pulling lines.
After connecting the lines to form a net, mark each net intersection with a marker to ensure that the intersection remains unchanged during the construction process.
Welding and installation of structural steel components
Due to the large tolerances between the steel structure and the point structure curtain wall, the error should be reduced when welding and installing the glass structural members.
In the glass curtain wall structural members before welding, should be in each glass seam position, spider fitting connectors at the center line to pull a good vertical wire, make a good spatial positioning point on the wire, spot welding using positioning head to control the glass connections in the horizontal spacing, horizontal elevation and distance between the curtain wall, three-dimensional positioning accuracy.
Stainless steel structural components welding installation accuracy, horizontal compartment size error is not more than ± 2 mm, horizontal elevation error is not more than 2mm, in and out of position error is not more than 5mm.
Point-fix structural glass components welding welding material selection should be matched with the welding base material. Welding between carbon steel and carbon steel, E43 or E50 series welding rod should be used. Welding between carbon steel and stainless steel, it is appropriate to use A102 type welding rod, stainless steel and stainless steel base material welding should use A132 welding rod.
Glass spider fittings positioning, installation, adjustment
Structural glass curtain wall airtightness, water tightness, seismic performance, load transfer, and other important curtain wall performance indicators are guaranteed by the installation accuracy of glass spider systems; glass spider systems is composed of glass connector, spider fittings, spider bolts and other components It has the functions of glass installation and positioning, curtain wall deformation compensation, etc. It is the core component of point type glass curtain wall.
1. After the structural adjustment, the spider connector is installed according to the glass connector installation point controlled by the control unit, and the installation point error caused by the structural offset can be corrected by the eccentric seat and eccentric head to ensure that the eccentric installation size of the barge is less than 3mm and the diagonal deviation is less than 5mm.
2. Installation of spider fitting.
Check the curtain wall base spider connector fixing situation comprehensively, and confirm the full compliance with the requirements after the installation of the spider bracket. Will be each group of spiders in accordance with the correct hole position and adjust the upper and lower horizontal to determine the position so that the distance between the claw and claw in line with the distance between the glass hole and the glass hole, in order to facilitate the glass can be installed smoothly. After the spider connector welding and installation is completed, start positioning the spider fittings; the spider fittings force hole down, and calibrate the level of the two horizontal holes with a horizontal ruler (the deviation of the two horizontal holes is less than 0.5mm), and install the positioning pins.
3. Install swivel bolts
Before installing the spider bolts, check the tightness of the threads and the fit between the spider bolts and the rubber gasket 100%. First, install the front part of the spider routel on the glass fixing hole and pin tight, ensure that the liner in each bolt complete, so that the metal and glass isolation, to ensure that the force part of the glass for surface contact, and ensure that the pin tight ring locking seal, locking torque of 10Nm, after the glass lifting in place will be the tail part of the spider bolts and spider fittings mutual after the glass is lifted into place, the end of the spider bolts and the spider fittings are interconnected and locked, while the positioning distance between the inner side of the glass and the spider fittings should be noted within the specified range.
Structural glass wall panel installation and control
1. Before the installation of curtain wall glass pieces, the verticality and elevation of the main support of the steel structure should be checked to see if they meet the design requirements, especially to re-check the glass installation holes.
2. After the structural glass arrives at the construction site, the surface quality and nominal size of the glass will be inspected by the site quality inspector and installation team leader, while the tempering of the glass will be fully inspected using the glass edge stress meter, and the glass installation order will be adjusted by using the top first and then bottom, layer by layer installation.
3. Before the installation of the tempered toughening sheet, the glass and suction cups should be cleaned of dust, and the number of suction cups should be determined according to the weight of the glass and suction cup specifications.
4. When installing glass on-site, swivel fittings should be assembled with glass on the installation platform first, and then spider fittings should be used for installation. To ensure its air and water tightness, a torque wrench must be used to determine the size of the torque according to the specific specifications of the glass spider system.
5. After the glass installation, the position of the top and bottom should be adjusted to ensure that the deviation is within the allowable range. After all the adjustments, check the flatness of the façade, and only after it meets the requirements, glueing can be carried out.
Glass wall gluing engineering and quality inspection
1. After the adjustment of the glass installation, glue is applied to make the glass gaps sealed.
2. The order of gluing is first up and then down, and the vertical seam is played first and then the horizontal seam.
3. Glueing process should be noted.
Clean the glass first, especially the stains on the glass side and the glue connection should be cleaned and dried, and the glue should be played within 24 hours after the protective tape is applied and processed in time, and the glue played should not have overflow and burr.
When playing glue using two people inside and outside the synchronous playing method to ensure that the glue seam is filled.
In the process of scraping glue must ensure that the interface of the horizontal and vertical glue joints are smooth, such as raised must be trimmed before the curing of the glue surface, to ensure that the drainage in the glue joints is smooth.
4. When gluing on alternate days, the glue joint is cleaned up first with the glue head already played and the glue tail is removed when gluing for the first time to ensure a tight connection when gluing twice.
If there are local glue defects (such as bubbles, hollow, broken seams, inclusions, serious cracks on the surface) found in the quality inspection, the part must be removed and cleaned up before making up the glue.
At Structural Glass & Glazing we understand what it takes to provide you with the best products and service possible. We take pride in our work and want to ensure that you receive the highest quality product and installation.
Contact Us today to learn how we can help you achieve your goals.
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