New Solar Management Glass Xtra allows natural light into interior spaces

Helping to balance energy usage and interior temperature control

April 19, 2022

Guardian Glass has launched Solar Management Glass Xtra (SMG Xtra), a specially developed float glass that provides better solar energy performance compared to standard green tinted glass, while maintaining a good level of light transmission.

Developed for architectural glass applications in warmer climates, SMG Xtra offers a combination of superior solar energy reduction and optimised light transmission, providing an ideal balance of aesthetic and performance benefits compared to existing green tinted float glass products.

SMG Xtra follows careful studies by Guardian Glass into float glass formulations and mixtures of raw materials. The result is a float glass product with high solar-absorbing properties that helps protect building occupants from excessive heat and offers a slightly lower light transmission compared to traditional green float glass, which provides improved shading from the sun’s glare.

SMG Xtra (6mm.) allows only 48% of solar heat gain to pass through the glass, while also reducing solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation in interior spaces down to just 13%. To further help block UV radiation, SMG Xtra can be laminated to prevent more than 99% of UV radiation passing through the glazing. Lower interior temperatures also helps reduce the use of air conditioning and hence lower overall building energy usage.

Even with all these benefits, SMG Xtra (6mm.) still allows 70% of natural light to enter interior spaces; making it an ideal alternative to clear float glass, more light, less heat.

For architectural projects that require safety glazing where extra safety is required such as in high-rise structures, commercial offices and high-rise residential buildings, SMG Xtra can be applied as laminated glass, providing greater resistance to damage and ensuring strict building regulations can be met. Similar to standard float glass, SMG Xtra can also be heat treated, bent, drilled and undergo different fabrication techniques.

In Thailand, SMG Xtra has been certified by the Institute for Scientific and Technological Research and Services, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (Ref. ISTRS/63256/01-02) and on process of acquiring Energy Saving no.5 certification from the Ministry of Energy’s Department of Alternative Energy Development and Efficiency.