Polycarbonate Glass And The Choice You’ll Make

Did you know that the polycarbonate glass competition is the building industry’s equivalent of a World Cup matchup or an Olympic medal bout? For a long time, glass ruled when it came to popularity, both from its longstanding heritage as a traditional material and also, in contemporary times, for its positive environmental qualities. But even though glass is attractive, and even though it can be continually recycled, glass makes a poor showing when it’s competing against polycarbonate. Isn’t it time you learned more about this remarkable building material and how well it fares in the polycarbonate glass competition?

Polycarbonate, Glass, and Impact Resistance

Unless you’ve taken up residence in a tree house, it’s pretty much guaranteed that you’ve been inside a building that uses polycarbonate as one of its structural components. Schools and hospitals, in particular, include polycarbonate in their construction because it’s 200 times stronger than glass. Polycarbonate is especially popular in greenhouses. The polycarbonate glass struggle for supremacy isn’t even much of a struggle, because polycarbonate can match the ability of glass to transmit natural light indoors while maintaining superior strength. If you’re looking for a material that’s durable and resistant to weather while still offering the esthetic features of glass, you’re looking for polycarbonate.

Maybe you’re still leaning toward glass for your construction project, and you’ve heard that polycarbonate scratches easily. That’s true, but that’s not the end of the story. Because clear polycarbonate surfaces need to be protected from scratches, the solution is to coat the sheeting with a layer that’s scratch-resistant.

What About Polycarbonate Glass And Heat?

The insulating properties of a building material matter more than ever in today’s energy efficient consumer climate. People don’t want their homes and workplaces to contribute to the ongoing climate change crisis. As far as insulating ability goes, glass is far inferior to polycarbonate. Polycarbonate supports a constant indoor space temperature because of its superior thermal efficiency. In the cold days and nights of winter, it reduces some of the need for heating; in the warm weather, it reduces the need for air conditioning. At the same time as it’s making a building more energy efficient, it’s reducing the structure’s carbon footprint.

The polycarbonate glass contest isn’t much of a challenge when we’re considering transparent roofing. That’s because polycarbonate, which totally blocks ultra-violet radiation, is a much better choice than glass, which does not have this ability.

There’s another bonus for a polycarbonate glass battle. Because polycarbonate is a thermoplastic, it’s capable of enduring temperatures that reach 155 degrees Celsius before it melts. But even if it does melt, it can be cooled, re-heated, and reformed.

Transporting Polycarbonate Glass

Not only is polycarbonate the better building material choice when it’s installed onto a structure, but it’s even superior before installation! Its light weight makes it easy to transport to the construction site, and its flexibility makes it easy to customize to suit architectural designs. Glass, on the other hand, is heavier, and not flexible at all.

Consumers sometimes have the wrong impression that a heavier, more solid material is the stronger option for a building, but as you can see from this information, the polycarbonate glass matchup only has one champion: polycarbonate. Its flexibility and durability make it the stronger of the two building choices. What does this mean for a consumer? Count the windows in your home or even workplace. Now think about how often they might need to be replaced. With polycarbonate windows, a longer life span means fewer windows being replaced. This moneysaver is also more convenient.

There you have it; in the polycarbonate glass battle, there’s only one victor and it’s polycarbonate.

polycarbonate curtain wall systems

There’s a lot that we don’t like about nature. We don’t like the pounding rainstorms that lead to dangerous storms and winds. We don’t like the heavy snowfalls and blizzards that travel across the region as if they’re invading.  We don’t like the hail that strikes the roofs of our vehicles. We don’t like the wild winds that can uproot trees and scatter their branches all over the place. What we do like about nature is the light.  How we feel when we wake up in the morning sometimes may depend on whether it’s a grey day outside, or we wake to the first rays of the sun rising.  in the sky. Danpal’s polycarbonate curtain wall systems are designed to allow the best of nature, the light, to be brought inside, while keeping the worst of nature outside.

polycarbonate Curtain Wall Systems Give Us More Natural Light

If you can spend your day in an environment where you aren’t entirely dependent upon artificial light in order to see, don’t you find yourself feeling better? It’s more than health, it’s a holistic signal from the natural realm that we are an integral part of the universe. Some weather can sometimes depress us, but natural light uplifts us.  

polycarbonate Curtain Wall Systems Don’t Surrender To Weather

Have you ever stopped to count the number of times you’ve made a complaint about the weather over the course of a year?  Each season brings its own litany of complaints; even summer, which can often be too hot for comfort, sending us hurrying inside to take refuge in air conditioning. But we’re just as dissatisfied during the cold of winter, the sudden rains of spring, and the winds of autumn that strip the leaves from the trees before they have a chance to fall on their own. If a building could talk, imagine how it would have cause to complain about the weather.  Yet it endures the elements and, thanks to the strength and durability of Danpal’s polycarbonate curtain wall systems, doesn’t give in to the weather. 

Contact Danpal to discuss polycarbonate Curtain Wall Systems for your next architectural project.