Trend Marine gets hot and saggy with it
Trend can bend it, shake it, any way you want it
Trend Marine Products has added a new 'sag bending' furnace and chemical toughening plant to its manufacturing base to enable them to produce and fit complex curved and laminated glazing to the largest of superyachts.
GLAZING: As megayachts get bigger and yacht designers and their clients demand more outrageous styling in larger windows, windscreens, doors and port lights, Norfolk based Trend Marine Products has made a substantial investment in a new sag-bending furnace and the accompanying glass toughening plant.
This, says the company, will allow it to fabricate complex curved laminated glass panels, making cone shapes, tight bends and matching pairs to be formed in one operation.
The technology to achieve these results is quite complex. Laminated glass panels up to 3.2m x 2.5m are contained in a horizontal electric furnace box and, under a specially controlled heat application, the panel lays (or sags) onto the highly accurate fabricated former until it reaches the correct shape.
Because the glass does not need clamping for the vertical furnaces, there are no tong marks on the edge of the finished unit. Finally, the glass unit is immersed in potassium nitrate where an ion exchange process takes place on the surface creating a substantial toughened skin. The unit at Trend can accommodate multiple units per toughening session for cost efficiency.
Images for this article - click to enlarge
Unless otherwise stated, all images copyright © Mercator Media 2012. This does not exclude the owner's assertion of copyright over the material.
