Product Category

Pilkington Optilam™

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Pilkington Optilam™ laminated glass

Pilkington Optilam™ is the brand name for our laminated glass range. Pilkington Optilam™ is ideal for providing both impact resistance and security since it may break on impact but the glass is held in place thus preventing injury or intrusion.

Pilkington Optilam™ is produced by combining two or more sheets of glass with one or more plastic interlayers. The performance of Pilkington Optilam™ can therefore be varied by changing the number and thickness of each of the glass panes and the polyvinylbutyral (PVB) interlayers to give the specifier a wide choice of products depending on application, whether it be for safety or security, noise control, solar control, UV screening, bullet and blast resistance or privacy and decoration. The most popular interlayer used is a PolyVinylButyral (PVB) interlayer, which is processed with heat and pressure under factory conditions.

How it works

The interlayers ensure the integrity of the glass, by holding the broken pieces in place should any damage occur. In fact, glass fragments adhere strongly to the interlayer, while the resistant cushioning effect dissipates the energy.

We can influence the performance of Pilkington Optilam™ simply by changing the number and thickness of each layer of glass and PVB interlayer. By doing this, we can offer a wide range of products suitable for many applications.

For solar control, privacy and decoration see Pilkington Optilam™ I Colour.

For privacy and decoration see Pilkington Optilam™ I Translucent White.

For noise control see Pilkington Optiphon™.

Pilkington Optilam™ safety glass offers following benefits:

range of laminated glass which reduces the risk of injury by accidental human impact,
remains in place, even when broken,
Pilkington Optilam™ 6,4 is the most widely used thickness for protecting people against risk of accidental injury giving Class 2(B)2 performance to EN 12600,
can be combined with other Pilkington products in an Insulating Glass Unit (IGU) e.g. combine with a Pilkington Toughened Glass outer pane to provide excellent overhead glazing protection,
available incorporating Pilkington Optifloat™ Tint, Pilkington Eclipse Advantage™ and Pilkington Suncool™ to provide impact safety combined with solar control properties (the latter can also be achieved by using a tinted PVB interlayer and is known as Pilkington Optilam™ I Colour),
available incorporating the range of Pilkington low-emissivity glass coatings such as Pilkington Optitherm™ and Pilkington K Glass™ as a pane of an IGU to enhance thermal insulation whilst providing impact safety.

Main applications include building entrances, internal and external doors, partitions and barriers, overhead glazing, swimming pools and bathing areas, shop display windows and windows glazed in low level safety critical locations. In these applications Pilkington Optilam™ will continue to resist penetration even when broken and provide some security protection in addition to safe breaking characteristics.

Pilkington Optilam™ security glass offers following benefits:

laminate resists penetration – glass may break but interlayer retains overall integrity and continues to act as a barier,
protects against break-ins by preventing or slowing down burglary attempts,
protects against vandalism and brief attacks using easily available objects,
withstands repeated blows from heavy objects such as bricks, hammers, crowbars and similar hand held heavy objects,
depending on the extent of the attack the product remains integral and protects the premises adequately and limits penetration whilst awaiting replacement, offering:
- protection from secondary looting,
- damage from the wind and weather,
- relative safety even while broken, reducing personal injury,
- often no need for 'boarding up',
available in 6,8 to 19,5 mm standard thicknesses,
conforms to EN 12600 Class 1(B)1,
provides a high degree of UV protection,
range of products meeting EN 356, the specification for anti-bandit glazing.

Typical applications include buildings or shops displaying valuable goods, banks, building societies, post offices, security glazing in hospitals and prisons, museum display cases etc. The correct grade and thickness specified for the application depends on the value of goods on display, degree of risk, estimated time needed by thieves to break in and enter.

The light spill at night from glass shopfront windows acts as an additional deterrent to the burglar - compare the effect with solid shutters which highlights to the burglar that the shop is empty. Retailers claim that a lot of shoppers make purchasing decisions when browsing during out of shop hours - using solid shutters prevents this.

Pilkington Optilam™ bullet resistant glass offers following benefits:

conforms to EN 1063 or to national specifications,
penetration resistant from bullets fired from handguns, shotguns, modern high performance firearms and high velocity military rifles,
available in 11,5 mm to 39 mm thicknesses to suit different levels of threat.

Can be used in applications in high risk buildings such as banks, post offices, building societies, embassies, cash offices, military establishments and VIP residences.