Monolithic glass is the most popular and basic product that also sets the foundation for other products that are listed on this website (see insulating and laminating). Mansour provides a lot of customization options on a single glass to choose from.

Monolithic Glass can be divided into 5 sections

  1. Annealed (Float) Glass
  2. Heat Treated Glass
  3. Coated glass
  4. Patterned glass
  5. Fabricated Glass

In general, Single glass can be enhanced for 3 main purposes:

  • Strength and safety (see heat treating, heat soaking)
  • Functional Design (see Drills, notches, CNC)
  • Aesthetics (see silk-screen, spandrel, sand blasting, CNC Engraving)

1- Annealed Glass (Float Glass)


Annealed glass, more commonly called float glass, are raw glass sheets which are imported from float glass manufacturers from all around the world. It is called float due to its creation process, also called Pilkington process, by mixing and melting silica sand, soda ash, dolomite, limestone, and salt cake to almost 1500 Degrees Celsius, and then floating it out on a pool of molten tin in a continuous process. As it is pulled onto a long conveyer, it passes through an annealing lehr which controls the slow cooling process. This produces flat, cooled, solidified clear glass which is called annealed glass. that is cut into sheets of various dimensions, packaged and shipped to warehouses and finally sold to glass fabricators similar to Mansour Glass, where these raw materials are processed according to specific customer orders to produce finished goods including tempered glass, laminated, IG, and others.

The best fabrication begins with exceptional raw materials. Therefore, Mansour imports a wide variety of float glass and mirror substrates from the best float glass manufacturing companies around the world. we work with the world’s most reliable and high quality suppliers of float glass, including Saint Gobain, Guardian, AGC and PPG.

2-0-float-process-01

single-glass-2

These unprocessed raw materials are available in thicknesses ranging from 5mm up to 19mm depending on the type of glass, which can be generally categorized into 3 types:

  1. Clear Float: The most popular product as it is suitable for most applications. It is, as the name suggests, visually colourless and provides high light transmission (daylight) and clarity.
    Availabilities:
    Thickness: 5.5 , 6, 8, 10, 12, 15,19
    Sheet Sizes: 3300*2250mm, 3660*2440mm, 4500*2500mm
  2. Extra Clear Float (Low-Iron): Locally known as crystal glass, provides slightly higher visible light transmittance with a reduction in the greenish tint that is inherent in standard clear float glass, this tint is caused by the Iron content in the glass chemical composition, which is reduced by around 75% in low-Iron glass.
    Note: The color of Extra clear glass may vary greatly from one glass supplier to another, as each uses slightly different chemical compositions in production, resulting in different reductions in the green tint.We recommend this type of glass for decorative applications such as furniture, entrances and showcases, also for use with colored back paint (See Spandrel Glass) in order to reduce the color variation from the original paint color after tempering.
    Availabilities:Thickness: 6, 8, 12, 15, 19Max Sizes: 3660*2440mm, 4500*2500mm
  3. Tinted Float: A wide variety of tinted color glass is sourced from our suppliers, most commonly used are bronze, green, blue, black and grey. These tints are created by coating the glass surface with a layer of metal oxide during the production process, it is usually used as decorative glass but serves important features such as reducing solar heat gain, blocking UV radiation and reducing glare from direct sunlight. Its low light transmittance means that glass absorbs light and heat, therefore Mansour recommends tempering tinted float glass to avoid thermal breakage.Availabilities:Thickness: 5.5 , 6 , 10Max Sizes: 3210*2250mm, 3300*21400mm

2- Heat Treated Glass


Heat-treated glass is float glass that has been processed through a tempering furnace to alter its strength characteristics. The process adds greater resistance to thermal and mechanical stresses, and when broken it has different breakage patterns, where the breakage pattern also serves as a quality test by comparing the breakage pattern to international standards.
The process of heat-treating glass involves transferring fabricated annealed glass to a tempering furnace that consists of 2 main chambers other than the loading and unloading tables. First, glass enters the heating furnace and gets heated up to approximately 620° C. Once at this temperature, the glass exits the furnace and is then rapidly cooled, or quenched, at the chiller. Air is blown onto the glass surface on both sides simultaneously. This cooling process creates a state of high compression at the cooled glass surface while the central core of the glass that remains hot is in a compensating tension. This results in improved strength and resistance to thermal stress and shock.

There are 3 types of heat-treated glass:

      1. Heat Strengthened (HS):
        Heat-strengthened glass is heat-treated glass with specific tempering configurations of the furnace, mainly involves slow quenching in the chiller , which produces glass that is almost twice as strong as annealed glass of the same thickness, size and type. If broken, heat-strengthened glass will break into large shards similar to annealed glass. Because of this, the tendency for the glass to vacate the opening is reduced.Regardless of this improvement in the strength and resistance to thermal shock and stress, heat-strengthened glass does not meet safety glazing requirements as outlined by International standards.
      2. Fully Tempered (FT):
        Fully tempered glass involves a different tempering program that produces glass that is typically four to five times stronger than annealed glass and two times as strong as heat-strengthened glass of the same thickness, size and type.In the event that fully tempered glass is broken,it will crumble into small fragments instead of splintering into jagged shards as annealed glass, reducing the chance for injury which rewards it the title of safety glass. But In doing so, the small glass fragments will completely vacate the opening.The minimum surface compression for fully-tempered glass is 10,000 psi. In addition, it complies with the safety glazing requirements as outlined by international safety standards.
      3. Bent Tempered (BT):
        Bent tempered glass or bent heat-strengthened glass undergoes the same tempering process of heat treating glass, but quenching is done in a chiller that can bend with adjustable radii. This allows the production of quality cylindrical safety glass in a wide range of sizes and thicknesses that gives room to create unique profiles for installations in commercial and residential applications.

single-glass-6

Mansour Glass has ability to bend glass with the following ranges:

THICKNESSMAX GIRTHMAX HEIGHTMINIMUM RADIUS
4 -12 MM2400 MM3600 MM1000 MM
        • Heat Soaked Glass :

In some cases, fully tempered glass may break spontaneously due to the expansion of nickel sulfide inclusions (NiS) present within float glass. To avoid this risk we recommend performing heat soak testing as a form of quality and safety assurance that significant spontaneous breakage will not occur.. Although the incidence of tempered glass breakage due to these inclusions is rare, greater publicity of their occurrence has resulted in an increased awareness of this phenomenon.

Spontaneous breakage in glass can be identified by seeing 8 mark on glass or a pair of adjacent hexagons, known as a butterfly pattern

single-glass-8

3- Coated Glass


Advancement in technologies over the last decade has brought about new coating processes on float glass that alters its appearance and enhances its characteristics and performance to provide features such as low maintenance, energy saving, special reflection, scratch and corrosion resistance and advanced solar and heat transmittance and absorption.

Coatings are made either during production, known as Pyrolytic Coating (Hard coating), which is extremely hard, durable and can be easily processed and handled. Or post production in special vacuum equipment known as Sputtered Coating (Soft Coating), which is a more advanced technology that produces higher performance glass than hard-coated but is more soft and susceptible to damage when single glazed and needs special handling and processing at fabrication plants.

          1. Reflective Coated:

            Coated float glass with a highly reflective surface that reduces solar heat gain inside of buildings and offers lower visible light transmitta
            nce which reduces glare, provides a bold exterior appearance and a one-way mirror effect reducing visibility from outside, which preserves privacy and is useful for facades where it is most commonly used.
            Availabilities:Colors:Bronze, Blue, Green, Grey, BlackThickness: 5.5, 6, 10Max Sizes: 3660*2440mm, 3210*2250m, 3300*2140mm

        1. Low-E Coated:
          Low Thermal emissivity glass is becoming increasingly popular nowadays due to its exceptional performance in reducing heat loss and lowering energy bills.To understand how this high performance coating works, we need to take a look at the energy that reaches us from the sun, which is divided into:
          UV light which is harmful short wavelength radiation that causes fabrics and materials to fade
          Visible Light which have wavelengths between 380-780 nanometers and are visible to the human eye.
          Infrared Light which is heat energy that has longer wavelengths that travels in temperature differences, emitted from hot objects to colder ones.

How it works??

What Low-e coatings does is minimize the amount of ultraviolet and infrared light that can pass through glass without compromising the amount of visible light that is transmitted.

It reflects radiant infrared energy, thus tending to keep radiant heat on the side of the glass where it originated, while letting visible light pass. This results in more efficient windows because radiant heat originating from indoors in winter is reflected back inside which keeps rooms warm and minimizes heating expenses, while infrared heat radiation from the sun during summer is reflected away, keeping it cooler inside which also minimizes AC usage.

4-Patterned Glass


Mansour imports a wide range of patterned glass that add fabulously decorative accents to modern interior design, wide range of solutions creating endless possibilities

are differ in colors, textures, patterns, thicknesses and maximum sheet sizes. Call us to inquire about available options and to request samples:

1- Patterned glass
is unique float glass that is processed in special rollers that imprints molded patterns on glass. It is an excellent choice for internal decoration as it is fashionable as a design feature by displaying prominent and attractive patterns, or subtle elegant ones. It is also used in situations where light but not transparency is needed.

Available Patterned Glass Types

2- Frosted and Acid-etched glass
Ready-made full sheet supplies of either acid-etched or sandblasted glass is available, which provides a full translucent effect which diffuses light, thus blurring images and is a great choice for situations where privacy and light is needed, such as offices, bathrooms and windows. It keeps a room bright and friendly while still allowing people to be comfortable.

5- Fabricated Glass


Functional Design
I- Edge works
II- Drills, Notches and cut-outs
III- CNC- Engraving / Drilling and Milling

Aesthetics
IV- Sand Blasting
V- Back Painting (SPANDREL)
VI- Silk- Screen
VII- UV Bonding
VIII- Acid-Etching

I- Edge works

This process eliminates any uneven appearance on the edges of the panel after the cutting and separation process.
This process is done for both safety and decorative reasons as well as for further glass processing (mandatory for heat treating glass), it is chosen as per requirements to each customer order..
At Mansour, we provide a diverse selection of edging options to choose from, summarized in the table below:

Other Edges: There are other edges available such as triple pencil polish (Waterfall), wave, or chipped.
Sometimes these edges are available on stock items but they normally have to be custom fabricated and are therefore very expensive.

II- Drills, Notches and cut-outs

These processes are needed to accommodate hardware, accessories, fixtures in walls or for pass-throughs of any sort. It requires skill to fabricate accurately and close attention to detail in design and
implementation.

There are special prescribed specifications for the general positioning of drill holes and for tolerances in respect of deviations from said positioning. Drilling tolerances can differ and are often to be agreed to on a case-to- case basis.

Holes can be drilled in glass with special diamond drills and machinery, while cutting notches in glass involves drilling and sawing.

All fabricated glass products with holes, notches and cutouts must incorporate tempered or heat-strengthened as it reduces the structural integrity of the glass and will reduce the safety levels that were intentionally engineered, therefore, annealed glass products are not appropriate.

Mansour’s precise drilling, notching, cutting, and CNC Shaping offers a full range of capabilities to hang, hold, shape, and hinge for your application
Maximum drilling diameter: 100mm (Bigger is done with CNC)
Minimum diameter: 6 mm

4-0-drills-_-notches-01

III- CNC

a) CNC engraving (V-Grooving)

By using Computer Numerical Controlled (CNC) machines, we can create elegant grooves on glass and mirrors, including polished, unpolished, straight or patterned grooves of high quality and precision.

This process adds style and beauty to plain glass and mirrors in interior decorations.

Max Glass size
Min Glass size

single-glass-12

b) CNC Drilling & Milling

Used For perfect polished cut-outs, notching, drilling and countersinking on flat glass.

Max Glass size
Min Glass size

single-glass-13

IV- Sand Blasting

A creative and decorative way of designing glass by blasting the surface with sand, which gives it a milky white appearance. This allows more variation and flexibility with designs, with the use of different sand coarseness, depth blasting and gives the finished product a richer textured appearance with imprinted images.

Also used with mirrors to remove the silver coating on the back-side, which couple with specifically chosen and placed LED lights, provides a modern “hidden” lighting look

V- Back Painting (Spandrel Glass)

By spraying special ceramic paint to the back of glass units and feeding it to the tempering furnace, the paint gets fused with the glass surface, giving a visual effect that is long-lasting, unscratchable with develops resistance to temperature fluctuations and general weather wear and tear. This option helps in hiding features between the floors of a building, including vents, wires, slab ends and mechanical equipment.

Ceramic fritting or back painting of glass offers endless options to architects and designers for creative designing by using colors on the RAL color chart.

single-glass-14

VI- Silk-Screen

Similar to ceramic back painting, silk-screening ceramic frit onto glass followed by a mandatory tempering process produces tough decorative glass that lets a designer create a subtle or bold look for a building-using patterns and color.

Usually used for high quantity orders of a standard-sized sheets of glass with a continuous design, silk-screen printed glass provides flexibility in selecting cladding materials for exceptional visual impact. It can be used with clear or tinted glass sheets, as well as with high-performance coatings to provide additional features including reduced glare and light transmittance, privacy and decreased thermal transmission.

VII- UV Bonding

UV Bonding is a process whereby, typically two pieces of glass, or glass with other materials such as steel, aluminum,etc, are glued together using an ultra-strong invisible UV adhesive, where glue is activated by projecting UV light onto the surface, creating a seamless, invisibly-joined glass edges that has an elegant and professional look.

Polished edges are required to achieve the desired aesthetic result with proper strong adhesion.

Mansour highly recommends this product for glass furniture, glass showcases and can be applied in many other applications, including adhering complementary accessories and hardware such as Stainless steel or aluminium hinges, knobs and locks.

UV bonding offers you freedom in coming up with your own creative design for using this feature to create artistic application of glass for furniture purposes, call our consultants for more information.

single-glass-16

VIII- Acid-Etching

Acid etching is a great alternative to sandblasting as the surface is smoother to touch and easy to maintain. it can reduce glare and reflection, add privacy, increase light transmission, and provide texture.