Highest quality for your yacht
We offer you excellent quality products to the highest yacht standard, manufactured by our employees with a very high degree of product quality.
Often used within our industry the term ‘yacht standard’ relates to materials and designs for superyachts but has no defined specification. We believe that ‘yacht standard’ defines the highest level of individual craftsmanship in terms of material and design. With the product family TILSE® GLASS we have achieved this quality and continue to re-examine it again every day.
Our TILSE® GLASS products have been specially developed for superyachts and therefore meet the high demands of the industry. At the materials selection stage we choose the float glass with the highest possible optic, plane parallelism and we also make sure it is free from all possible imperfections. Cutting and grinding of the edges are done with highest precision. To ensure this, both plane and bent glass are measured in advance by using our 3D measuring methods on board.
The treatment of the edges of a bent glass pane is completed after the bending process using our highly skilled and experienced craftsmen. At this point of the manufacturing process it is very important that no offset of the compound occurs. For example, the visible edges of windshields with inclined installation angle receive a grinding mitre.
After this process the individual panes are completely chemically toughened and are then joined to form the required glass laminate with our special bonding resin. This resin has been specially developed for both plane and bent glasses not only to achieve a bonded glass laminate free of tension but also to achieve the highest UV protection for the vessel’s interior (wood, clothes, colours etc.) with an optimal long-term temperature resistance without any yellowing. The result is a 100% UV absorption up to 340 nm. On request we can achieve up to 400 nm absorption. No other bonding material can achieve such a high UV absorption. Our resin is long-term temperature resistant (up to 110°C and down to -40°C).
In addition, the resin is humidity resistant, yellowing free and non-ageing which is important in the aggressive seawater environment. After extensive testing we choose this special resin over the more usual PVB (polyvinyl butyral) foil that it used by many of our competitors. Our resin achieves better results then a PVB foil and thus offers the best possible protection against UV light. Compound glass with a PVB foil has a significantly lower temperature resistance (normally up to max. 73°C).
Furthermore, the use of a PVB foil requires a manufacturing process under pressure (e.g. autoclave or vacuum) resulting in tensions affection the glass panes. In general, these tensions significantly reduce the maximum load that a compound glass may carry. The less tensions a compound has, the greater the surface load capacity and the bending strength. The compound process of TILSE® GLASS products where we use our innovative resin does not cause any comparable tensions as we work without a manufacturing process under pressure.
By using a PVB foil for the compound glass the risk of delamination is dramatically higher compared to a compound glass with our specially developed resin. In the case of delamination, the individual glass panes of the compound detach from the foil. Besides negative optical effects in the surface the delamination results in a rapid decrease of the surface load capacity and the bending strength. As a consequence a costly replacement of the delaminated glass panes is required.
The use of our special resin for the laminated glass panes is more expensive than a similar pane manufactured with a PVB foil. However, these additional expenses may be easily offset by the damage to the vessels interior from the additional UV exposure. For example, after a recent refit the owner had to spend a high amount for the repair of the interior damaged by UV light. This would not have happened if he had used our TILSE® GLASS compound glass right from the beginning.
Our competitors often imply that we only favour our resin because we cannot offer a PVB foil. In fact, for the construction and architectural applications we do offer PVB as there are situations where there is no demand for highest yacht standard. With our special resin compound, we achieve 3 to 5 times higher safety margins, not only for surface pressure tests but also for local impact tests.
The yacht building industry often still uses ESG (single safety glass) or compound glass made out off ESG. ESG panes are thermally toughened. Within this process the surface becomes distorted due to the pressure applied (waves up to 0,3 mm). This distortion results in local shading or changes in colour that are visible at an acute angle or through sunglasses with polarizing lenses. Especially on superyachts, this low-quality standard can hardly be accepted and is thus far away from ‘yacht standard’. To us these types of defects are not acceptable, and hence we do not supply ESG glass.
Please contact us if you would like to receive detailed information on our products of the TILSE® GLASS family.
