Learn From These Mistakes Before You Think About Film Installation

Window film is a self-adhesive material that will be applied to new or existing glazing to solve a number of problems. Solar control, privacy, decorative and anti shatter films are already around for several years, specialist films for example anti graffiti and anti fog films are also being widely used in today's' market.

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

Window film can be fitted to most sort of glazing, they can all be fitted to flat glass but some films may also be fitted to raised or patterned glass depending on the flexibility of the movie and also the sort of pattern, if 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 is because the glass is curved in two directions, the film can be easily applied to glass curved in one direction but if it's a compound curve you will probably need to heat shrink the film, specialist car window tints are available for this, these are often a thinner material and are specially made to be heat shrinkable more so than a standard window film.

You will find three technologies which give different performance characteristics, they are; dyed, deposited and sputtered.

Dyed films tend to be on the cheaper end of the market but these films should not be disregarded, as you will find some good 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 absolutely present), polyester sheet(s), adhesive mixed with dye, backing liner). They 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's very little protection for the dye, as such they can fade quickly. Since the dye is mixed with the adhesive the colour isn't always uniform as well as the colour can be moved during installation.

An even better type of dyed film is one which has the dye sandwiched inside two sheets of polyester, this film is significantly more colour stable as it is protected by the polyester sheets, additionally, this provides no problems when installing as the adhesive is clear and there may be no colour shift. These films can very often be supplied with as much as a decade warranty.

Among the common misconceptions with dyed film installation is that it can disperse heat into the property. As dyed films can absorb heat and it's fitted inside it is easy to see why people think this. However most of the heat is held within the glass and because 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 in to 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 suited to this kind of glazing and you must make sure that you check on it's suitability before installing as installation on the wrong type of glazing may cause thermal cracking.

Deposited window film is created by drawing film by way of a tank of metal ingots (usually aluminum or nickel chrome, but sometimes copper). Pressure is then reduced in the tank creating a vacuum and the tank is filled with argon gas. In the event the tank is filled with gas the metal ingots will be 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 effortlessly by altering the speed of the film throughout the chamber.

Sputtering is the most complicated procedure for creating window film. This process is also accomplished in a vacuum although the metallization within this 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 known as "atomic billiards") causes groups of atoms to dislodge in small bursts and scatter uniformly throughout 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 may 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 10 years to lifetime. Sputtering is the most expensive process to achieve and as such sputtered window film is at the larger end of price range