Building Film Review

From Edge Of Eternity - Eternal Forge Modkit Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search

Window film is a self-adhesive material that will be applied to new or existing glazing to solve a range of problems. Solar control, privacy, decorative and anti shatter films happen to be around for quite some time, specialist films such as anti graffiti and anti fog films also are being commonly used in today's' market.

In its simplest form window film is a thin sheet of polyester, adhesive and then a thin polyester backing liner. Additional sheets of polyester can be found on many films, two sheets of polyester is called two-ply, some safety films are usually accessible in three ply. A metalized or dyed layer can sometimes be added between these sheets of polyester to add colour or tint and a scratch resistant coating may be found on a large number of films to protect from daily wear and tear.

Window film may be fitted to most sort of glazing, also they can all be fitted Edwinclarkuniversity Edu post to a company blog flat glass but some films can also be fitted to raised or patterned glass based on the flexibility of the movie and also the sort of pattern, should the pattern is too raised the movie may not be successfully installed, however there will be a flat side to all patterned glass. Another problem sort of glazing may be compound curves found on the windscreens of cars. This really is because the glass is curved in two directions, the movie may be conveniently applied to glass curved in one direction but if it's a compound curve you will probably need to heat shrink the movie, specialist car window tints are accessible for this, they are commonly a thinner material and also are specially made to be heat shrinkable more so than a standard window film.

You will find three technologies that provide different performance characteristics, these are; dyed, deposited and sputtered.

Dyed films are often on the cheaper end of the market but these films shouldn't be disregarded, as you will find some excellent dyed films on the market. The bottom end of the marketplace is glue tinted, glue tinted films possess the dye mixed with the adhesive (scratch resistant coating (not always present), polyester sheet(s), adhesive mixed with dye, backing liner). These are usually sold on the Asian and South American market but remain sold in Europe. These films are not usually particularly colour stable, as there is very little protection for the dye, as such they can fade very quickly. Because the dye is mixed with the adhesive the colour is just not always uniform and the colour can be moved during installation.

A greater type of dyed film is just one that has the dye sandwiched inside two sheets of polyester, this film will be much more colour stable since it is protected through the polyester sheets, this too provides no problems when installing as the adhesive is clear and there can be no colour shift. These films can very often be supplied with as much as several years warranty.

One of the common misconceptions with dyed film is the fact that it can disperse heat in to the property. As dyed films can absorb heat and it's fitted inside it's easy to view why people think this. However most of the heat is held within the glass and since the wind speed outside is so much greater than inside (wind speed averages over 15mph outdoors but only ˝ mph indoors) the external air draws the heat outside. Some heat is leaked into the property but most heat is dissipated outdoors.

As double glazed units allow no air movement in between the glass, interior dyed films aren't always suitable for this type of glazing and you should ensure that you check on it's suitability before installing as installation on the wrong sort of glazing can cause thermal cracking.

Deposited window film is created by drawing film through a tank of metal ingots (usually aluminum or nickel chrome, but sometimes copper). Pressure is then reduced in the tank creating a vacuum and also the tank is filled with argon gas. When the tank is filled with gas the metal ingots are the heated, the heat causes the metal to give up particles, which in turn migrate to the films surface in an even layer. The density of the metal deposits may be controlled quickly by altering the speed of the film throughout the chamber.

Sputtering is the most complicated procedure for creating window film. This process is additionally carried out in a vacuum but the metallization in this particular process is achieved at atomic level. Electromagnetic fields direct streams of ions from a chemically inert gas (usually Argon) towards the metal. This ion bombardment (often generally known as "atomic billiards") causes groups of atoms to dislodge in small bursts and scatter uniformly through the film.

The advantages of sputtering are that around 30 different kinds of metals may be used; various metals may be chosen to subtract specific radiation from the solar spectrum. The metalized coating will be much lighter; a sputtered metal can be created in a layer one-hundredth of the thickness of a human hair.

The result of sputtering is a highly reflective layer which has very little mirrored effect, heat absorption or colour shift and as such warranties are usually a decade to lifetime. Sputtering will be the most costly process to achieve and therefore sputtered window film will be at the higher end of price range