NorthGlass Continues its Jumbo Trend—Now Eight Stories High

Originally published on USGNN on December 2, 2021. Authored by Luly Hernandez. 

Two months ago, NorthGlass set a Guinness World Record for the largest window installation. Now, the Chinese glass fabricator has produced a lite that pushed its production capabilities to its limit. This time, the jumbo tempered glass will be installed in the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce in Guangzhou City, China. JangHo is the façade contractor and RFR is the facade consultant.

According to Holly An, sales director for NorthGlass, the project’s glazing consists of low iron, fully tempered and heat-soaked laminated glass that spans about eight stories high – about the width of 34 adults standing side-by-side. The glass has an area of more than 75 square meters—about 807 square feet.

Producing glass of such length was a challenge for the company. Before this project, the maximum size NorthGlass had produced was about 59 feet, says An. Now, the company is producing glass that is about 79 feet.

Despite the change in size by only about 20 feet, each step of the process needed to be reevaluated and redeveloped, according to An. Transporting the glass and materials, laminating, cutting and polishing were all different.

One other area that had to be reconsidered for large lites of glass was the tempering process. Because of its large size, it was difficult to ensure the glass would maintain the same temperature from top to bottom. An says it was necessary to study and set up the suitable parameter of the tempered furnace to make sure the heating would be equal across the entire piece of glass. This was also necessary during the cooling process.

In addition to the Guangzhou Chamber of Commerce, NorthGlass is involved in another jumbo-sized project, currently in progress. In October, the first large curtainwall glass supplied was installed at the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center Library. Two sections of the project will have 138 pieces of glass and 276 pieces of large glass. Among these additions, some lites reach a height of about 50 feet and about 8 feet wide. Additionally, they have an area of about 405 square feet and a single total weight of 11.5 tons. According to the company, installation is expected to be completed by December 25, and the entire project will be completed in December 2022.