SATINAL: Boat wind-shields made in Italy

SATINAL, the innovation-driven Italian company operating worldwide to deliver advanced solutions for safety glass, has launched the first third-party production of chemically tempered glass for the nautical sector.

Chemical tempering of glass is obtained by immersing the glass to be treated in a bath of molten salts of potassium nitrate at temperatures higher than 400 degrees Celsius. The potassium ions (K+), contained in the salt, replace the sodium ions (Na+) inside the glass, resulting in the establishment of compression tensions over the entire surface and the edges.

The properties of mechanical resistance to bending of a chemically tempered glass are up to 6 times higher than those of a thermally tempered glass, subjected to the same force. This particular production process, as consequence of the surface compression, increases impact and scratch resistance.

A TK Chemical Tempering oven is installed at Satinal headquarters and the first third-party production has already started: glass with a thickness of 2 millimetre each, chemically tempered to be used as wind-shields in the nautical field.

After this process, the glasses were laminated using STRATO® Fresco, the EVA interlayer with solar heat control properties: it absorbs UV and NIR energy allowing the highest visible light transmission and efficient solar control. It is specifically formulated to provide thermal insulation and exceptional durability when exposed to natural weathering; it also provides excellent acoustic insulation performance.

However, nautical is not the only sector in which chemical tempering is applied, it can also be found in aeronautics, architecture, automotive, electronics and the military.