Gardian Glass

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JFeig

JFeig

PFG, Picture Framing God
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Oct 13, 1999
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Oak Park, MI
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minoxy llc
A thank you to Gardian Glass and their staff for a very interesting tour of their facility in Carlton, MI. last evening. This plant ships about 1,000 semi's of glass a month!

The furnaces were HOT HOT about 2900 degrees F at the front end. We had about 50 PPFA members attent and learned a lot.

Some interesting facts for us framers. This is the location where all the coating for picture frame glass is producted. It is done accross the street next to their research lab.

-The UV coatings get better as they age, they do one degrade.
-and kind of cleaner can be used (other than abrasive)
-moisture will improve the UV properties
-the UV coating is 1 micron thick
-the base class stock is from their low iron (no green cast) glass.
-they are converting all of the picture framing boxed glass (Artistic Choice) to low iron.
-the UV coatings are similar to coatings (same family of chemistry) as for architectural products.
-picture framing glass comprises less than 5% of their production. They supply the base glass for True Vue and Denglas.
-Guardian is the largest manufacturer of mirror in the world
-the plant operates 24/7/365 for 18 years until they rebuild a furnace.
-no metal pop cans are allowed! Alumnium is a metal that will ruin the glass.
 
Guardian Glass held a super seminar on Saturday with Jim Parrie. Jim is a dynamic speaker and enlightened us how to run a successful framing business. Thank you to Guardian for sponsoring the class.

I have never tried their equivalent to TV Conservation Clear. Have any of you cut this product with a hand held cutter? I do not have the traditional wall cutter and cut all glass on a flat surface with the green Fletcher hand held cutter. Does the blue plastic coating interfere with snapping the glass to break the excess? Your opinions of this glass would be appreciated.

Susan Gittlen CPF
Whispering Woods Gallery
Holland PA
 
It cuts easily through the plastic film with a hand cutter.
And the left overs are not scratched in the glass rack for use later.
 
We tried a case of Guardian glass last year with less than enthusiastic results.

To cut it, they suggest cutting through the blue film and the subsequent layer of U.V. film: invariably this causes chip-out akin to using too much pressure on the cutter. Not a problem in the past (I would use a piece of tape to pick up these tiny shards) but the surface of this coating is so smooth that these shards stick like glue. I have scored the uncoated side, cracked it, then folded it over and cut the film with a razor to eliminate chip-out only to find THEIR cuts riddled with shards.

Peeling the film from small pieces is no problem but on larger pieces it can be tricky, sometimes necessitating the use of a tube to roll it off (another step). Also the film sometimes doesn't go all the way - leaving two or three inches of coating exposed.

When the glass is peeled it still needs cleaning. As the film is removed "tide lines" are created, sort of like acrylic only more noticable (in shades of pink and green highlights) and harder to remove. Then we noticed that the tiny air bubbles under the film were specks of dust and glass chips trapped in the coating - not just stuck to the underside of the film.

Nothing's perfect, not even TruVue, but I save some time using T.V.'s stuff.
As for the cut-offs being more usable, when one lite of filmed glass is slid against another, the sharp edges rarely do no damage to the film and the subsequent coating.

All I ask for is a low-iron, anti-reflective, U.V. filtering, unbreakable, unscratchable, impermiable glazing. Is that so wrong?!
 
Brian, Have you used a fresh glass cutter with a wheel angle of approx 134 degrees?

We have not experenced any of the problems that you are stating. Other than, yes, you have to wash the glass.

And it is the exact same glass as TV uses as their base for Conservation Clear.

As for TV not being "perfect". What are you willing to pay for "perfect" glass. It will be a lot more than what you are paying now.
 
The Art Guard glass we get from Guardian is 2 mil. and the Cons. Clear from Tru Vue is 2.5 mil., is it possible that they use different thicknesses of glass in different locations?

I haven't found anymore flaws in the Guardian than I have the Tru Vue.

We do have to change the cutting wheel more often with the Guardian Art Guard.

My experience is that he chips from cutting are easily removed with masking tape.

Whe removing the blue plastic on a large piece of glass I peel it from all four corners toward the center in a wad until there is just a very small amount sticking then just lift it off.
 
Dermot;

Yes, that is the "brand name" of their product. I did not see any info on the European sites from Guardian. It must be shipped from here in metro Detroit from the Carleton plant.

By the way, it comes in 6 sizes (16x20 through 40x60) in 50 sq ft boxes. They will not be increasing the assortment of sizes, I
asked.
 
Jframe,

As for the thickness. Per Al Jalynski at Guardian, as I remember, there is actually .1 mm difference.

You are referring to posted nominal sizes and not actual measured thicknesses.
Artistic Choice is supposed to be 2.2 mm
True Vue is supposed to be 2.3 mm
 
Dermot;

The glass is coming in containers to Luxemburg and Spain from Michigan.
There is also distribution down under by GHS glass in Brisbane.
 
Re Guardian UV Clear. We stock this in UK - but we buy it paper-interleaved, not filmed. The glass cuts beautifully and hits high numbers on UV blocking. The only issues so far are the little shards of coating residue from the factory's cutting (easily removed with adhesive tape) and two complaints from framer customers (We distribute throughout the UK)saying that they cannot tell if their staff have used UV glass because "there are no ripples or roping". We'll settle for that! Our material is 2.3mm thick by the way. It now outsells Con Clr 3:1 and rising.
Visit us at www.glass-mirror.co.uk
 
Welcome to the Grumble.

Is there a difference in paper-inteleafed vs film covered from a cost basis or is the only way it is shipped to Europe? If the price is not an issue, the film covered will protect the coating better (leftovers) and tell framers what side is coated.

The ripples can only be seen from a high angle and a raking light.
 
Originally posted by Brian Lehr:
We tried a case of Guardian glass last year with less than enthusiastic results.

To cut it, they suggest cutting through the blue film and the subsequent layer of U.V. film: invariably this causes chip-out akin to using too much pressure on the cutter. Not a problem in the past (I would use a piece of tape to pick up these tiny shards) but the surface of this coating is so smooth that these shards stick like glue. I have scored the uncoated side, cracked it, then folded it over and cut the film with a razor to eliminate chip-out only to find THEIR cuts riddled with shards.

Peeling the film from small pieces is no problem but on larger pieces it can be tricky, sometimes necessitating the use of a tube to roll it off (another step). Also the film sometimes doesn't go all the way - leaving two or three inches of coating exposed.

When the glass is peeled it still needs cleaning. As the film is removed "tide lines" are created, sort of like acrylic only more noticable (in shades of pink and green highlights) and harder to remove. Then we noticed that the tiny air bubbles under the film were specks of dust and glass chips trapped in the coating - not just stuck to the underside of the film.

Nothing's perfect, not even TruVue, but I save some time using T.V.'s stuff.
As for the cut-offs being more usable, when one lite of filmed glass is slid against another, the sharp edges rarely do no damage to the film and the subsequent coating.

All I ask for is a low-iron, anti-reflective, U.V. filtering, unbreakable, unscratchable, impermiable glazing. Is that so wrong?!
Click to expand...
We had been using Guardian for a while where I work. We had the same problems as you with the little glass shards that stuck like glue. We recently started using another brand. Like it much better. Can't remember offhand the name.
 
My experience here (selling and training in use of Guardian UV glasses) is that if 'spalling' is occuring, then there's usually too much pressure on the wheel (or as JFieg pointed out, using the more acute angled cutter helps a lot).

If using the Fletcher wall cutter, use the more acute angle cutting head, but more importantly :

When cutting through the film side, you should be holding the little pressure lever up at top of the cutter handle. Just enough to keep the spring form letting the head come off the film as it cuts. No weight as such, just so you can't lift the wheel off, which is only holding it up quite gently really.

If spalling is still happening, back the spring off a bit.

I have found different shops cutters have their own balances here, and once you find it cutting Guardian UV or normal glass on the same settings is fine.

Cutting by hand through the film ? You should have a fairly hard cutting bench surface which helps the cutting through the film, and experiment with cutters (acute angles), but generally if you have a hard table and good firm pressure your regular cutter works ok once you find the same balance.

Alternatively (safer option all round), cut other side, run or snap at end of the bench, and after gently opening the gap, run a box cutter through the film.
 
Dermot said:
Brian

This is on the FACTS site http://www.artfacts.org/artinfo/presentations/hand_cutting_glass/index.html it may be of interest to your or for that matter anyone who is having problems cutting glass.

BTW there is some great stuff on the FACTS site….I have not had a good look at it for some time I either missed some stuff in the past or there has been some recent additions……knowing me I most likely missed stuff in the past… www.artfacts.org

Rgs
Click to expand...

What a great link for the glass cutting.

Just goes to show, just because you can get it done, doesn't mean it was done correctly!

Thanks!
 
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