The glass fin (mullion) is the original backup structure first introduced by Pilkington over 40 years ago. Today, it is still the most widely specified support member in structural glass design.
These fin supported systems exploit the full potential of glass as a structural material while providing support for the Pilkington Planar™ glass facades and fin walls for maximum transparency.
The glass fin wall system uses monolithic or laminated fully tempered glass fins as a means of support to transfer wind loading to structure. Various “moment” and “pin” type connections can be used to transfer loads to the structure in different ways.
Most structural glass fin supported structures are suspended from the structure above. Pilkington Planar™ glass panels are fastened to the glass fins by the use of Pilkington Planar™ fittings. In this arrangement, the total weight of the facade panels and fins is carried by the connection at the head. This design allows for very high facades to be designed without large in-plane loads on the Pilkington Planar™ panels. While some systems can be floor loaded or “stacked”, we will ONLY floor load up to a height of 32 feet (10 meters). This configuration is due to the possible buckling of the glass fins. In high seismic areas, glass is always suspended. All glass fin back-up structures are available as a completely engineered sole source Pilkington Planar™ system package for guaranteed performance of the complete assembly.
There are many variations and options for structural glass fin wall designs available depending on the design intent and structure available. Please consult a W&W Glass architectural design specialist for specific application recommendations.
