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Kite Glass in Westfield, White City, London
The Westfield White City Development is Europe's largest intown retail centre. There was a requirement to create a light, environment but, at the same time, offer a safe and secure shopping experience.
The structure consists of 150,000m2 over two floors. The first floor has over 2,000 glass balustrades of which three quarters are flat and one quarter curved. The panels are 1100mm by 1300mm and are fixed by a cantilever support which is hidden in the flooring of the mall.
The free standing panels of laminated glass contain Du Pont™ Sentry Glas® structural inter-layer. This enables the glass to be 20% thinner than other glass laminates of equivalent performance.
Kite Glass Limited, the leading supplier and installer of toughened and laminated architectural glass, was an obvious choice to undertake this prestigious project.
"The White City project required a thinner, stronger and more cost effective solution than standard PVB laminates," says Leroy Reed, CEO of Kite Glass Limited. "We were able to demonstrate, using results obtained from previous balustrade tests conducted at Kite Glass, that the enhanced structural performance of laminated glass panels, with a Sentry Glas® interlayer, would allow us to create a balustrade with a thinner glass system, an extended performance range in terms of its strength and deflection, and improved post glass breakage performance."
"Testing of the laminated glass panels at the Kite Glass Weybridge factory was successfully taken to 1.5 times the design load, (4.5 kN/m - a test usually applied to steel barriers)" added Leroy Reed.
Kite Glass Limited entered the specialist glass market in 1985 and has always been focused on
manufacturing and supplying products that meet the highest standards for quality and performance.
A key factor in the success of Kite Glass is the company's simple yet effective operating philosophy - respond quickly to customer enquiries, have an in-depth understanding of our customer needs and always meet deadlines.
Further, the company believes that technical support is an integral part of its service. To help it maintain the very high standards that it sets itself for product quality and service, Kite Glass has invested heavily in 'in-house' testing facilities. These cover not just the glass itself, but also supporting structures associated with the glass.
"In-house testing brings big benefits," said Leroy. "It helps us to develop new products quickly as we don't have to wait for test results from third parties, and it also means that we can keep a close eye on product quality. A really important advantage for our customers is that we can demonstrate to them that the products supplied are not just designed to meet a specific set of requirements, but that they actually do meet those requirements."
The company is increasingly finding that the users of these customized products, highly value having the opportunity to witness their products being tested.
Kite Glass Limited develops many special products, including architectural glass work for stair cases and balustrades, as well as customized glazing for ships, trains and road transport.
Benefits of Du Pont™ Sentry Glas® for the designer
- Improved strength over other interlayers. Five times the tear strength and 100 times the rigidity of conventional PVB interlayer.
- Good opportunities to reduce glass thickness, particularly for thicker laminates.
- Added strength, clarity, durability fabrication ease.
- Beneficial for point supported glass.
- Enhanced impact performance.
- Excellent weather and edge stability.
