Fail-safe point fixing of structural glass. New advances

The intrinsic brittleness of glass renders its architectural use in monolithic panels quite problematic. For this reason, glass plies are usually laminated with polymeric interlayers that can maintain coherent fragments after glass breakage, so avoiding sudden collapse (fail-safe response). However, the safety performance disappears if the connection to the rear load-bearing structure is not able to retain the panels in their place after glass breakage. To this aim, an innovative point-fixing system for frameless glass glazing has been developed, that exploits the enhanced mechanical properties of a new generation of ionoplast polymer interlayers. Bending tests on small scale glass beams have been performed at various levels of loading, temperature and aging. Laminated glass connected with the new device exhibit a noteworthy resistance and interesting post-glass-breakage performances.