EXPERIENCE | TECHNOLOGY | PASSION
Glass Processing
The glass division consists of the transformation of flat glass, and we specialise in manufacturing small designs.
Production is carried out to order according to the customer’s design starting with the raw material: large sheets of glass.
Typically, Metalfilms’ glass products are used in illumination, diving masks, electronic panels, light switches and for objects for which small tempered glass is required.
The process begins with the procurement of large sheets of glass of various thicknesses and types, such as clear glass, Stopsol, low emissive and textured, amongst others.
A specialised cutting table with numeric controls cuts the glass to the required measurements.
Following cutting, the glass moves onto the edge grinding phase. The glass can have two types of finishing: matt which is carried out by ‘bilateral’ machines equipped with diamond tools, or simply polished using a special machine with abrasive sandpaper. Given both methods are abrasive, it’s important to cool down the glass pane to avoid ‘burning’ the edges which could cause invisible surface fractures and cause them to break even after a certain time.
As soon as the edge-polishing process has been completed, it’s necessary to wash and dry the glass in order to avoid any trace of limescale which is unacceptable for our quality standards.
It's also possible to drill holes or decorate the glass using the screen-printing method, with special machines which guarantee speed, precision and standardisation.
Finally, the glass is tempered in a special machine that heats the glass to a temperature of around 600°C and cools it quickly to give the right level of tempering in accordance with the UNI EN12150 standard.
Once tempered, the glass cannot undergo any mechanical processing such as drilling or cutting.
The individual stages of tempered, polished-edge glass production are:
- Cutting the glass sheets to size
- Edge polishing
- Drilling holes
- Washing and Drying drying
- Screen-printing
- Tempering
- Packaging
Safety Glass, the importance of the tempering process
Tempered glass significantly improves the mechanical properties, rendering the glass more resistant to impacts, bending, temperature and thermal shock. Furthermore, the glass develops accident-prevention properties because, in addition to being more resistant, in the event of accidental breakage, it shatters into countless small, non-hazardous, blunted pieces.
Metalfilms’ speciality is in the realisation of small sized tempered glass in accordance with the customer’s specific requirements.
We produce glass in standard or bespoke shapes with matt or polished edges and can drill holes in the final product.
In addition, we can decorate the glass using multicolour screen-printing.
Conductive screen prints can be applied to make the surface condensation-proof, even on glass covered by a metal coating.