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Good Day Everyone,
I have a customer who said that he has had 2 of his non-tempered
windows "shattered" from the sunlight and the vinyl graphics?
The graphics were applied to the inside of the window. They have only been on the window for a few months also.
Anyone ever ran into this? I have been in the biz for over 20 yrs.
and have never ran into this.
The vinyl, to my knowledge, does not expand that much, even in the dead of summer.
Any info would be helpful!
The window was about 80" wide by 70" tall. We installed a digital print across the bottom of the window, on the inside that was the width of the window and 16" tall.
I have never seen or heard of this before either. I talked to the manufacturer, as mentioned by Ozzie, and they said to me that although they cannot make any promises or warranties on this subject, it does not happen.
At this point I am still searching for the truth.
Thanks
It's not the vinyl that's expanding. The black vinyl is collecting a lot of heat, and transfering it directly to the glass; the glass is trying to expand at the heated area; the surrounding glass with no vinyl (or lighter colored vinyl) is trying to resist the expansion. Snap crackle and pop.
I've not seen it with vinyl yet, but a competitor here told me he once painted a black background on a 4 x 12 foot high glass panel and it shattered in the morning sun as he picked up his tools. Heat built up within minutes to the breaking point.
i don't think lucky is the word. I've been installing vinyl on glass since 1986 and have never heard of such a thing before. I would think the glass was installed in to small of an opening and was stressed long before the vinyl went on. There is a reason glass is installed with lots of play in the opening. Same reason you never drill a quarter inch hole in plex for a quarter inch stud.
let met clear this up for everyone. I not only own and a electric sign company but I also own a commercial window tinting company and have been in that business for 24 years. When you install any window film or vinyl graphics to the inside of a window, you risk the possibility of cracking the window. If it is double pained glass you might even cause seal failure and moisture can get in between the two pains and cause a moisture build up. The moisture build up has a milky streaked look to the wondow. The cracking of the glass can happen to any window no matter if it's single pain, double pain, tempered or annealed glass. Tempered glass is much stronger and more expensive. The cracking or breaking of glass is caused by excessive heat build up and is called thermal stress fracture. When this happens to tempered glass it explodes into thousands of small pieces of glass. When annealed glass cracks, the crack usally starts at the corner of the window and has a "S" shaped crack across the window. Darker colors absorb more heat and increase the risk of this happening. Larger and darker colored graphics stand a huge chance of causing this to happen. Smaller text like graphics with lighter colors are less likely to cause damage. Installing graphics on the outside of the window poses no risk of glass break or seal failure. I hope this helps everyone and if you have any further questions feel free to ask. Thanks.
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If it is a black vinyl it has happened to me
The rate of expansion and contraction of the glass as opposed the the rate of the vinyl cause stress and breaks the window. 3M explained it much better. It does happen