The shift in how people work has driven a change in commercial construction. Tenants are looking for increasingly specialized buildings for their unique needs and governments are calling for construction to be more environmentally friendly. The Performance Coatings team at Vibrantz is working with glass fabricators to find unique solutions for these challenges by refocusing our efforts on developing digital inks that provide qualities like reflectiveness, mirroring and luster to help commercial buildings differentiate from one another.

Bird-friendly building materials make headway in construction industries.

As the problem of bird-to-building collisions becomes more widely known, an increasing number of states, cities and municipalities are adopting legislation that recommends, and in some cases, requires, bird-friendly materials to be used on new construction and building renovations. With an estimated one billion bird fatalities annually from collisions, certain building materials can make a huge difference. 

digital inks bird safe glass

“Bird-safe glass typically is characterized by visual markers applied in a pattern. We work with glass fabricators to provide aesthetically pleasing inks for glass. Our digital inks can help lower bird collisions and improve energy efficiency due to their infrared reflective properties.”

– Pierre Plazonnet, digital technology manager for performance coatings.

Our customized solutions help you stand out and save money. 

Flat glass is the industry standard for glass manufacturing in commercial real estate design and construction. This includes glass panes on building exteriors, glass doors and separators inside buildings and glass panes used for structural decoration such as along stairwells. 

Glass fabricators commonly use screen-printed designs, effects and even pictures to differentiate buildings from one another. This can be costly due to the need for an ample supply of raw materials. It also becomes more difficult to produce different designs and effects quickly due to the need to constantly switch materials, resulting in a lower quality product. 

We provide glass fabricators with alternative solutions for screen printing that provide cost savings and unique designs. Our digital inks offer flexibility in manufacturing runs to switch design or effects quickly and require fewer raw materials. The reduced amount of materials cuts down on storage costs and helps save you money and space.

From a finishing point of view, our inks can be used to achieve technical properties as well as create a wide variety of effects on glass, including:

  • Customized designs and patterns
  • Lines and dots using inkjet frit to support bird friendly glazing
  • Anti-reflective coatings
  • Decorative finishes like luster or etch
  • Functional coatings, such as those that reduce glare, mask selected areas or improve energy efficiency (i.e. NIR reflection or optical density)

More than just architectural glass.

We offer a wide variety of these materials to meet the needs of our customers in different industries, such as automotive glass, decorative glass, structural ceramics, dinnerware and porcelain enamel. 

If you’re looking for technical or application support with digital inks in your glass manufacturing process, contact digitalinks@vibrantz.com to learn more.

Andre Noppe

Vice President, Glass Coatings

Andre Noppe

Vice President, Glass Coatings

Noppe leads the glass coatings group of our Performance Coatings unit at Vibrantz. Prior to serving as vice president at Vibrantz, he spent 21 years at Ferro where he served in various roles including business director, European sales manager for electronic materials and key account manager. Noppe spent four years as an engineer at Shell Solar before his tenure at Ferro. He holds his Master of Business Administration from Purdue University and a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from The Hague University of Applied Sciences.