AGC Glass Europe

Noise is increasingly an issue in the modern environment: people are more and more exposed to road traffic, train or airplane noise.

Glass manufacturers have long offered products to protect people from noise. However the most widespread products consist of double glazing in which the air between the two glass panes is replaced by a mixture of argon and a noise-absorbing gas: sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆). The main drawback of SF₆ is that it is one of the most powerful greenhouse gases: one tonne of SF₆has the same greenhouse effect as 23,900 tonnes of CO₂!

In 2000, AGC Glass Europe launched a new product : Stratophone® acoustic laminated glass. With this new glass, one of the glass panes in the double glazing is replaced by a pane of specially designed acoustic laminated glass. The acoustic properties of the product are improved and SF₆ is no longer used.
In addition to improving the acoustic properties of the product, Stratophone® acoustic laminated glass avoids any release of SF₆ into the atmosphere at the end of the product’s lifetime (against full release for a standard glazing).
Furthermore, it avoids release of SF₆ during production of the double glazing (some 10 to 20% of the SF₆ used for standard double glazing is lost to the atmosphere during production, according to a study by the Danish Environmental Protection Agency).

The product named Mirox 3G made by AGC Glass Europe is designed to limit the impact on the environment and give higher quality compared with conventional mirrors.

Conventional mirrors are produced by applying several layers on the glass:

• a coating of silver
• a coating of copper
• a first coating of paint containing lead, for chemical protection
• a second coating of paint, for mechanical protection

Application of the copper coating requires the use of chemical products and results in a large volume of waste water containing copper, ammonia and organic compounds. The use of lead paint involves the production of solid waste containing lead in the factory and causes difficulties with the product at the end its life (considered as dangerous waste, with no recycling possible).

Mirox 3G is the third generation in a range of mirrors that represent significant progress in terms of quality, ecology, resistance, handling and performance. AGC holds the exclusive patent for the Mirox 3G manufacturing process.

MIROX 3G is a new ecological development that makes it possible to produce mirror glass without a copper layer, without lead in the paint, with practically no formaldehyde and with 70% less solvents used during its production. Besides improved mirror qualities, MIROX 3G reduces the pollution caused during manufacturing (see table below) and processing (bevelling, grinding etc.) and gives improved possibilities for recycling the product at the end of its life.

Compared with MNGE, which is already a very environment-friendly mirror compared with conventional mirrors, the protective paint used in MIROX 3G contains:

• 50% less lead (content reduced from 0.2% to 0.1%)
• 70% less solvents
• 0% formaldehyde (a colourless gas, a very harmful irritant)

In parallel, AGC Glass Europe has made large efforts to reduce the quantity of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) emitted. The silvering lines are equipped with state-of-the art air pollution control units to eliminate the VOCs. The technology applied is Regenerative Thermal Oxidation (RTO). The VOCs are broken down thermally into harmless compounds (CO₂ and H₂O). The heat produced by decomposition of the VOCs is used to preheat them, so that no additional heat source (natural gas) is needed. Thanks to the installation of RTO units in all three plants, VOC emission has been reduced by nearly 95% (see Fig. 24).

MIROX 3G mirror glass fully conforms to the requirement of directives 2000/53/EC on End of Life Vehicle (ELV) and 2002/95/EC on the Restriction of the use of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) in electrical and electronic equipment, which bans cadmium, lead, mercury and hexavalent chromium.
MIROX 3G conforms to the European Standard EN 1035: Glass in building – Mirror made from silver coated float glass for internal use.
MIROX 3G won the 2007 Belgian Award for the Environment and the M-Tech Award presented by the International Forum Design in 2008.