The recent spate of toughened glass shower screens, pool fences, balustrades and overhead glass spontaneously exploding in homes across the Australia and New Zealand has prompted the need to issue a safety warning to building and homeowners.
This year, two different Victorian apartment blocks have experienced exploding balcony balustrade panes. In Perth this June, a shower screen suddenly shattered while a four year old boy was taking a shower. Similarly, a Sydney mum called the ambulance in September 2016 after a shattered shower screen cut her three month old baby’s face. In Sydney this January two sisters, one eight months pregnant, were sitting next to a pool fence when it suddenly shattered. Shoppers at Robina Town Centre in Queensland were startled when a shopfront window unexpectedly exploded in June this year[1].
In New Zealand there have been a number of instances where glass has for no apparent reason to explode such as over an escalator in Wellington, entrance canopy glass in Christchurch and Dunedin.
Apart from physical impact or damage to glass edges, the most common cause of glass explosions in toughened (tempered) glass is a phenomenon called ‘Nickel Sulphide (NiS) inclusion’.
To protect employees, family, friends, guests and even passers-by from spontaneous glass explosions, Solar Gard and Speciality Window Films suggests the application of a safety film, which essentially creates a membrane that holds the glass together if it shatters.
Glass with applied Solar Gard safety film can be brought up to Grade A safety standard under Australian / New Zealand Standard AS/NZS 2208:1996, Grade A safety glass in human impact situations. It is a very tough, clear polyester film less than 1mm thick with a safety-strength adhesive. The combination of film and adhesive helps hold the glass together if it breaks, so instead of pieces falling onto persons or property, they remain stuck to the film.
“The recent incidents of random glass explosions are alarming. While toughened glass is designed to fragment into small cube-like pieces when broken, it can still pose a serious injury risk as the cubes can ‘clump’ together and sharp edges can be present, says Mr Ross Eathorne Managing Director Speciality Window Films.
“There is no way of predicting which installed products in your home could fail,” Eathorne continues. “So when it comes to glass, it’s best to err on the side of caution because the risk of injury to anyone nearby is so extreme. Safety film presents a permanent, invisible and cost-effective solution to the unpredictable and dangerous threat of toughened glass explosion.” Says Eathorne
With the recent introduction of much tougher Health and Safety regulations in New Zealand, employers and property owners have a responsibility to provide a high level of safety protection
Homes, offices and government buildings around the world use safety film to help protect against broken glass from bomb blast, extreme weather or spontaneous explosion. It can be applied to any glass surface, internally or externally, and comes in a range of different colours and thicknesses (the thicker the film, the stronger the substrate it’s applied to becomes). Solar control, UV reduction safety film is also available.
What is Nickel Sulphide (NiS)?
Invisible to the human eye, NiS is a tiny particle that can form inside glass during manufacture. NiS particles naturally expand during the lifespan of the glass, and usually never cause a problem. Toughened glass is about four times the strength of normal glass. Its strength comes from a balance of tensile and compression forces put into the glass during manufacturing. Sometimes the expansion of NiS particles disrupts the balance of these forces inside the glass, causing spontaneous explosion of the ENTIRE pane.
Central Wellington Apartment building 12th May 2016
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/regional/303649/glass-balcony-sheets-fall-from-wellington-high-rise
1- Christchurch Public Hospital February 2016
2- Willis Street Escalators September 2015
3- Dunedin mall March 2015
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/334867/mall-glass-failure-not-structural
[1] Link to story and footage of the exploding glass balustrades in Carlton and Brunswick, Victoria, 2017
Link to story regarding the Perth shower screen incident, June 2017
Link to story regarding the Sydney shower screen incident, September 2016
Link to story regarding the pool fence explosion in Sydney, January 2017
Link to story regarding shopfront window explosion in Robina, June 2017
Distributed in New Zealand by:-
Specialty Window Films
3D/89 Ellice Road
Glenfield Auckland
Tel (09) 441 0040
Contact:- Ross Eathorne
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About Solar Gard
Solar Gard positively impacts lives with products that protect, save and renew. Headquartered in San Diego, California, Solar Gard makes industry leading architectural and automotive window films, photovoltaics and custom coatings.
A division of Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain, the world leader in the habitat and construction markets, Solar Gard’s architectural solar control window films are proven carbon negative and reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Solar Gard products are sold in more than 90 countries under the Solar Gard®, Panorama®, Quantum® and Solar Gard Armorcoat® brands. For more information, visit www.solargard.com.au
About Saint-Gobain
Located in 64 countries and with almost 200,000 employees, Saint-Gobain, world leader in habitat, designs, manufactures and distributes building materials, providing innovative solutions to meet the challenges of growth, energy-saving and environmental protection. World leader in high performance plastics, Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics is headquartered in Aurora, Ohio (USA). The company employs 4,500 employees in 16 countries. Its product offer includes films, foams, coated fabrics, bearings, seals and fluid systems. For more information, visit www.saint-gobain.com and www.plastics.saint-gobain.com.
Bringing a whole new meaning to “speedy recovery
We all know Formula 1 is a test bed for a variety of technologies that will eventually trickle down to the street. Now, McLaren is taking its go-faster know-how and applying it somewhere a bit unexpected – health care. The body armor you see here was created in response to a client’s request for a device that would help keep his organs protected after undergoing surgery. It’s called Invincible shield, and it protects the rib cage through the use of high-failure strain Dyneema fibers, as well as woven fabrics and a highly-toughened resin system. The construction and materials pull from McLaren’s F1 experience, and includes the same fibers used as side-impact crash protection in the race car. Essentially, this armor is made from the same stuff that’s going into next year’s F1 competitor.
The end result is something lightweight, but tough and rigid enough to protect the client. The armor was designed to be discreet as well, and was perfectly tailored to the client’s body to be hidden under a shirt. Responsible for its creation was McLaren’s Applied Technologies division, which apparently has a hand in developing health care products. “From digital therapeutics, to tailored human performance programs and bespoke medical devices, our aim is to innovate health care solutions that can be tailored for individual patients,” says Dr. Adam Hill, McLaren’s Chief Medical Officer. Yeah, I didn’t know McLaren had a Chief Medical Officer, either.
Continue reading for the full story here on TopSpeed || October 5, 2017 |||.
Pratt & Whitney Canada has signed an agreement with Air New Zealand for engine servicing. This agreement covers the PW123s and PW127Ms which power Air Nelson's Q300s and Mount Cook's ATR 72-500s and -600s respectively. The two regional subsidiaries have a combined fleet of some fifty aircraft.
The Avianca group has signed a similar contract to service the PW127Ns which power its ATR 72-600s. It currently has around fifteen twin-engined turboprop aircraft and is still waiting for ten more.
In addition, the two groups have opted to install the FAST (Full flight data Acquisition, Storage and Transmission) solution, a predictive maintenance solution which manages the engine's health and its use by analysing and transmitting data collected during flights, especially information about propeller vibrations. For Avianca, the system will be particular useful for monitoring "boost" and "super boost" modes, activated during operations in "hot and high" conditions.
This technology has also just been improved as Pratt & Whitney Canada has integrated a propeller vibration trend monitoring function. "This new feature balances the propeller in "as condition" mode, to ensure a predictive and optimised environment designed to reduce operating costs and workloads for pilots and mechanics", explains the Canadian engine producer.
| A Le Journal de l’Aviation release || October 5, 2017 |||
According to a new report, the design sector contributed over $10 billion to the New Zealand economy in 2016 writes Henry Oliver from TheSpinoff in which he asks Thomas Mical, the head of AUT’s School of Art and Design, what that means for New Zealand design.
Designers know that their work creates value, but a recent report from DesignCo – commissioned by ten New Zealand institutions including AUT – confirms it, by quantifying design’s growing impact on the New Zealand economy. According to The Value of Design to New Zealand report, the design sector contributed approximately $10.1 billion to the New Zealand economy in 2016, about 4.2% of New Zealand’s GDP.
And if design were treated as its own industry rather than a sector within various industries, its contribution to the economy would be larger than agriculture ($8.1 billion) and on the heels of retail trade ($10.6 billion) and food, beverage and tobacco product manufacturing ($10.6 billion). Product design and interactive design are the two biggest contributors towards design’s economic impact, along with manufacturing, human health, financial, environmental and construction industries.
But it’s not just design for design’s sake. The report shows a strong design sector and national prosperity and economic growth. Further, design is a powerful tool of urban regeneration and a way to help solve complex and hard-to-solve problems in both the private and public spheres.
Thomas Mical, the head of AUT’s School of Art and Design, was trained as an architect and has thought a lot about the interaction of public and private spaces. He sees reports like The Value of Design as vital, not just for the design industry to prove it’s worth to the government and the private sector, but for designer’s themselves to understand their economic impact and the value of the work they do. And for Mical, who sees the future of design everyday in his student’s work, its value is only going to grow.
Continue here to read the full article on TheSpinOff || October 5, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242