Car dealership showrooms and modern office buildings with large glass surfaces are facing challenges of reducing air conditioning load during summer. Conventional countermeasures include use of roll-screen curtains and heat-shielding films. These have drawbacks however. For instance, roll-screen curtains have inadequate ability to block sunlight while also reducing visibility when rolled down.

In 2015, TMC formulated its “Toyota Environmental Challenge 2050” as part of its aim to create a society in which people and cars coexist in harmony with nature. Among its various initiatives to reduce the CO2 emissions of vehicles, production plants, and related facilities, TMC has developed and commercialized an "opening-closing type basic double skin" for dealership showrooms, and a "dispersion type double skin" for small- to medium-sized offices. TMC brought the concept of commercializing new, environmentally friendly double-skin products to AGC, which has a strong track record in energy-saving replacement glass products, and this led to the start of this development effort.

Ceiling-mounted Double Skin System

REFERENCE

■ Overview of double skin system

The double skin system is a construction method of covering a building’s external walls with glass to raise heat insulation performance in a building’s interior. It consists of two glass layers and an interlayer (cavity). Incoming heat is absorbed in the cavity, and heat is dispersed by air flowing in from the outside.

■ Coolverre™

Coolverre™ is automotive glass designed for use in car windshields. An infrared (IR) blocking agent has been infused into the interlayer※1 enabling this laminated glass to block over 90% of IR rays, the main cause of the burning sensation※2 on the skin caused by sunlight.
It also cuts approximately 99% of ultraviolet (UV) rays which are said to cause sunburn and blemishes.

※1 It is defined by AGC as "light with a wavelength of 1500-2200 mm"
※2 Evaluation of burning sensation is based on the results of research and evaluation by AGC

■ Thin sheet glass

This glass offers the benefits of improved strength over ordinary soda-lime glass, which is widely and commonly used for plate glass, and is also damage-resistant despite its thinness.
This chemically reinforced glass is used in general architectural applications and also contributes to weight reduction in such products as solar panels and lighting equipment.