Glass the trend-setter

Due to its diverse, versatile range of applications in room and interior design, the material glass is enjoying increasing popularity. The constantly growing product spectrum is also opening up new highly attractive areas of operation for the glass-processing and finishing skilled trades.

Never before has glass been used in such diverse applications in the area of interior architecture as it is today. There is hardly any area in private as well as public buildings which cannot be designed using glass. From the floor via the walls to the ceiling – practically everything can be individually finished and designed using special glass. Glass staircases and glass furniture are currently just as much the trend-setters as are all-glass showers and attractively designed wash basins in glass. With new, easy-care product ranges the glass finishers are now also making inroads into the kitchen sector. Instead of ceramic tiles, wall mirrors can be created using individual glass designs. Complementing them we have work-tops and of course also the corresponding cupboard fronts in safety glass.

Diverse finishing and refinement techniques

Glass is fully in keeping with the trend. One reason for this is the current zeitgeist, which associates glass products with openness, modernity and an exquisite home atmosphere and environment. The basis for the development of glass into an absolute trend material is new or further-developed glass structures and finishing technologies. By using the technology available today, larger-dimension glass can be quickly processed and individually tailored to customers’ requirements and specifications. In addition to the classic finishing techniques such as sand-blasting, etching, enamelling, adhesion and bending, digital and film prints are opening up completely new design possibilities. Laminated glass reliably withstands even the highest loads and stresses.
On top of this is the fact that the suppliers to the sector are offering a large diversity of products which also enable craftsmen's-structured companies to perfectly smoothly finish and refine glass, combine and install it in buildings.

Individual products

Even if not every one of the available refinement technologies is suitable for application in craftsmen's companies, these firms can nevertheless fall back on the entire product spectrum. As a result there are hardly any limits or restrictions for them either when it comes to designing rooms using individual glass products. Even small companies are in a position today to offer a clearly broader range of services and products and to extend their independence from the fiercely-contested standard products market.
The absolutely necessary prerequisite for the successful marketing of innovative glass products is however knowledge of the current trends and developments on the market. A comprehensive overview here is offered by glasstec 2008. From 21 to 25 October exhibitors from all over the world will present the entire spectrum of refinement technologies and the latest glass products for modern interior architecture in the Düsseldorf exhibition halls.