SAGE has enhanced its award-winning dynamic glass SageGlass, a product of Saint-Gobain, with a new tinting option that extends the product’s architectural design possibilities. Announced today at the annual Greenbuild conference, SageGlass will now be available in large architectural sizes without a center bus bar. This option complements a long list of SageGlass product innovations that enable architects and building owners to combine solar control with an aesthetically pleasing design while enhancing building performance.
A bus bar – found on standard SageGlass – is a thin electrical conduit through the middle of the pane that helps the glass achieve the industry’s fastest tint switching speeds. SageGlass has traditionally employed a center bus bar for glass sizes greater than four feet to provide superior switching speed and tinting uniformity in all conditions. The new option with “no center bus bar” provides architects and building owners with yet another design alternative. The bus bar is not required, even for large glass sizes of 5 x 10 feet. While the use of a center bus bar will provide faster and more uniform tinting performance, the new, bus-less option adds another dimension of design flexibility to SageGlass’ industry leading portfolio of dynamic glass options. Furthermore, a large glass unit with no center bus bar may also be equipped with SageGlass LightZone™, just like a standard unit. This option enables one large pane of glass to be configured into two or three sub-zones for maximum control and daylighting.
“We continue to recommend SageGlass with a center bus bar for most large glass applications due to optimal product performance,” said Dr. Alan McLenaghan, CEO of SAGE Electrochromics. “But we are always looking for ways to provide architects with more design freedom. By offering this new option our customers have greater choice in how they want to use dynamic glass in their buildings.”
This latest product news is just one more innovation from SAGE. With its large intellectual property (IP) base of over 320 patents, SageGlass provides a vast array of features and benefits to meet customer needs. Among these are:
- High-quality glass with uniform tinting and color aesthetics
- Fast switching speed from clear to tinted
- Glare control with 1% visible light transmission
- A range of shapes including trapezoid, parallelogram and triangular forms
- Laminated IGUs for strength and durability
- A range of exterior color options
- LightZone to provide in-pane zoning within one large pane of glass to maximize daylighting
- SageGlass Unplugged™ a wireless capability for retrofit or hard to reach spaces (available for iOS and Android operating systems)
- Partnership with Lutron to provide an integrated solution with dimmable lighting
- Large 5 x 10 architectural sizes – now available with no center bus bar if desired
“SageGlass product innovation enables us to ‘do it all’ for customers in an integrated solution,” said Derek Malmquist, vice president of marketing for SAGE. “All of our innovations – sizes, shapes, colors, improved glare control – reflect our effort to reduce trade-offs between design and functionality. We have the ability to configure a solution to meet the needs of almost any type of project. Whether a university, office building, healthcare facility or government installation, you can always get SageGlass in your preferred configuration.”
Shapes
SageGlass provides design flexibility by offering dynamic glass in trapezoid, parallelogram and triangular forms, in addition to standard rectangular glass in sizes up to 5′ by 10′. SageGlass shape options are widely available and have been field-proven in several innovative projects such as the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. The large (6 by 9 foot) triangles are on display at the SageGlass booth (#1517) at Greenbuild this week in New Orleans. Other examples include the
National Research Energy Laboratory in Boulder, CO, Cottage Grove City Hall in Cottage Grove, MN, and Immanuel Bible Church in Springfield, VA.
Color and tint levels
SageGlass is also available in a variety of colors to enable architects and building owners to maintain design integrity while improving energy efficiency with dynamic glazing. SageGlass is fabricated in a laminated multi-pane process, allowing different color options to be combined creating an even larger spectrum of choices. Having a larger palette of available colors enables architects and building designers to more seamlessly integrate SageGlass with other glass in their projects. New standard colors include the below options (custom colors can also be developed as necessary):
- SageGlass Blue
- SageGlass Green
- SageGlass Gray
Glare Control
SageGlass has also further enhanced its glare control capabilities. In its fully tinted state, the glazing is able to achieve 1% visible light transmission. Each incremental percentage point has a significant impact on glare control. Importantly, even when fully tinted, SageGlass always remains transparent (from the inside) so building occupants never lose their view and connection to the outdoors.
