Anti-Shatter, Wraps, Corrugated & Interactive Windows

Every single window at Old Trafford is being covered in clear anti-shatter film to protect players, staff and fans in the event of an explosion in or around the ground. 

Manchester United cover every window at Old Trafford in clear anti-shatter film to protect against explosions in wake of Paris terror attacks: The move comes as Manchester United ramp up security in the wake of last year's Paris terror attacks, with the installation of the sheets at their stadium designed to prevent glass smashing. Workmen are this week making sure each and every window pane has the film attached - a huge job given the amount of glass utilised around the stadium.

Supporters are already being given full body searches as they embark on Old Trafford on match days. A procedure which came in after the alleged Paris atrocities in November in which alleged 130 innocent people lost their lives. The Stade de France was allegedly targeted by ISIS fanatics, who had planned to gain entry to the ground and detonate bombs, but, luckily, were thwarted from entering the stadium.

All fans watching Louis van Gaal's side are patted down on match day entry after being given a full scan and some staff and supporters are also being asked to remove their coats in specific sections of the ground. The new security measures were rolled out for the Champions League draw. They have continued since, with heightened security around the perimeters of Old Trafford to keep the thousands descending on the ground safe in any eventuality.  

United boss Louis van Gaal revealed the experience of that night in Paris had left a number of his players feeling traumatised. The match between France and Germany continued, despite explosions being clearly audible in the stadium during the friendly game between France and Germany. Thousands of fans flocked on to the playing field at full time, scared of heading home as the alleged horrific scenes unfolded in the French capital which left so many dead and wounded.

A building wrap, starting at the base of the Harmon, points pedestrians to CityCenter and the Crystals mall.

How to wrap a building: Think wrapping a present is hard? Try wrapping a building. That’s exactly what owners of the unfinished Fontainebleau have to do, after the Clark County Zoning Commission voted in November to require that an unfinished part of the building, marred by rusty building panels, be covered up by a paint-and-fabric building wrap.

Resort officials were given 90 days to submit designs, then will have six months to wrap the building 100 feet from ground level up on the west side, facing Las Vegas Boulevard. Though the resort recently was listed for sale, County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani said owners will have to comply with the wrap regardless. Billionaire investor Carl Icahn bought the bankrupt project five years ago for about $150 million and has been sitting on it since.

Building wraps are common on the Strip; they hover over most corners. Most of the wraps are hung for advertising purposes. Elite Media, a local advertising company, has wrapped many of the valley’s buildings. In 2007, the company draped a Dwyane Wade T-mobile advertisement on the north face of Mandalay Bay. Wade’s ear alone was five stories tall.

It’s too early to know what the Fontainebleau’s covering will look like, but Elite Media President Chad McCowell — who has been wrapping buildings for 15 years — shared some insight about what it’s like wrapping a building on the Strip.

Step 1: Getting approval - Building wraps on the Strip are vetted by the Clark County Zoning Commission. There are no specific guidelines for what commission members approve or deny; approval is discretionary and depends on what the wrap will look like and where it will be placed. The commission can and does put restrictions on wraps, including whether they can contain advertising. In Las Vegas, commercial property owners can wrap their buildings as long as they undergo a sign review with the City Council every year and use the wrap to highlight a product or service offered in the building.

Step 2: Applying the wrap - Advertising agencies, design firms and building owners typically design wraps. The artwork is designed digitally on a computer, just as art for a smaller sign would be, then is divided on a grid, usually into 4-foot-by-25-foot strips, to be printed. A print shop prints each of the strips on a large format printer. The strips are printed either on mesh if they need to be seen through or on vinyl if they don’t. Vinyl gives a cleaner image.

Each strip essentially is a giant sticker with adhesive on the back, covered by paper. Depending on the season and how long the wrap will remain up, the artwork can be printed on a more or less heavy-duty material. In the summer, the surface of buildings can heat to about 250 degrees.

To attach the strips, workers typically use window washing scaffolding to traverse the face of the building. They usually start at the upper left, working top to bottom, then left to right. Each sticker is numbered and corresponds to a numbered grid to ensure it’s placed in the correct spot.

Workers remove a small portion of the adhesive backing at a time and roll the strips down the face of the building, smoothing out bubbles with a scraper or their hands. Wrapping the entire side of a resort-sized building takes about a week to 10 days.

Step 3: Maintenance - The typical lifespan of a wrap is one year to 18 months. Wraps generally can stay up about a year without needing maintenance. After that, the wrap might experience some flagging, when the corners of the pieces start to peel up. Workers easily can pin the pieces back down with adhesive. Wraps also may fade after about six months.

The view through the 11-meter high corrugated glass fa ̧cade in Antwerp.

Future applications for corrugated glass panels: Now it is possible to make facades out of corrugated glass, even in laminated glass and insulated glass units, we may think about another possible use in the construction of buildings.

Roofs. Why not? If the improved static behaviour (compared to flat glass panels) works for the windload; why not for the dead load or the snow load when it is placed horizontally, as a roof? The transparency combined with the natural waterthightness of glass makes it a very interesting roofing material. Of course sun shading is an important issue that has to be taken care of.

Walls. Flat glass panels have a very unfavourable structural behaviour concerning axial loads. Buckling or plying will occur very quickly at already low normal-stress levels. For corrugated glass this is far better. A simple test with a piece of folded paper to act like a wall demonstrates the enormous rise in bearing capacity compared to the same piece of paper as a flat panel. Also from a stability point of view: a flat panel tilts over easily while a corrugated panel stands firmly, so a choice for a corrugated panel is obvious. We did make a proposal for a load carrying, corrugated and insulated glass wall as a perimeter to a villa designed by the Dutch architects MVRDV. The German firm of Finiglas was able to make the corrugated insulated glass units in a safe and even cost-attractive way: 120% if compared to a standard brick wall with large glass windows.

Conclusions. Corrugated glass represents a more then 1000% increase in bearing capacity for loads applied out of plane of the glass. For loads in-plane of the glass, the buckling and plying resistances increase also dramatically. When we realise that the glass thickness does not change at all, it is clear that we have a very sustainable application of glass. Architects have pointed out to us that the water-like appearance of corrugated glass is positively better than the dull shimmering of flat glass, leading to a more lively and therefore beautiful facade.

Whatever is shown on the glass is not due to electronics on the glass’ surface itself, but rather, there is a projector-like device on top that beams the interface at an angle.

Corning Reveals Interactive Retail Glass: When we mention Corning, most of the time one would think of Gorilla Glass, as that seems to be their most popular export. However, it seems that Corning has long moved beyond churning out tough glasses for smartphone and tablet displays, in order to remain competitive with the rest of the market.

Dr. Jeffrey Evenson, Corning’s SVP and CSO, shared, “As we extend the technical and design capabilities of precision glass, Corning continues to deliver innovative technologies that enable more connected, interactive, and customizable lifestyles. We’re excited to engage consumers and industry partners in a set of new application opportunities inspired by our vision for the future – all made possible by Corning.” This would include an interactive retail glass that might just spring up like mushrooms in the future if the idea catches on.

Whatever is shown on the glass is not due to electronics on the glass’ surface itself, but rather, there is a projector-like device on top that beams the interface at an angle, and much work could be done to increase the resolution count for the future. What is projected ends up on some sort of matte-like layer that, when you manipulate the icons on the beamed user interface, they will react accordingly.

It remains to be seen whether this will cause folks to enter the store after going through your catalogue of items or not, but one thing’s for sure – you would have to put in additional effort in cleaning the glass window at the end of the day or before your shift starts due to the additional number of fingers, greasy ones even, touching the display all over the place. It looks like what is projected will not look too legible under bright or direct sunlight, as it was demonstrated in a rather dim setting, so we will just have to wait and see how Corning is going to develop this idea further.