Glasstec Specialist Article: Transparent Visions

Transparent Visions

The special show glass technology live forms an integral part of glasstec. This year the special show will address the four focal themes Interactive Façades/Display Glass, Energy and Performance, Structural Glass (thick glass/thin glass) and New Technologies.

In cooperation with four Technical Universities (Darmstadt, Delft, Dresden and Dortmund) and selected businesses Messe Düsseldorf will be showcasing forward-looking technologies in Hall 11. Furthermore, the glasstec conference will provide information on the latest developments while also picking up on current research projects from the special show.

The essential and typical characteristic of glass is its transparency – a property that laid the foundation for the appeal of this material millennia ago and that has not ceased to fascinate with its versatile applications until this very day. From the early period through antiquity to the Middle Ages glass manufacturing has been constantly refined and specialised.

By the introduction of industrial-scale production glass became an affordable mass-produced product on the one hand, and machine-based glass technology also opened up hitherto unknown possibilities for glass finishing, on the other. Last but not least, digitalisation brought completely new fields of application such as interactive façades and energetic functions.