The aim of the “Curved Glass” working group is to reduce problems that hinder the use of curved glass and to support the innovative use of curved glass through research and development activities.

This involves contributing to standardization and application guidelines, addressing the interests and input of association members regarding curved glass and facilitating the exchange of experience on specialist, technical and scientific issues relating to curved glass.

In the first step, the working group focused on the qualification of a standardized test method for determining the tensile strength of thermally (cylindrically) curved glass as a prerequisite for future product standardization. From 2016 to 2018, a BMWi-funded research project was carried out under the leadership of the Institute of Building Construction at TU Dresden, in which the scientific basis for the standardization of a method for determining the flexural tensile strength of thermally curved glass was developed as a working basis for standardization. As part of this project, an application for standardization was submitted to the German Institute for Standardization in Berlin and an initial draft standard was developed, which was submitted to the European standardization committees via DIN.

In the future, the working group will focus on the ongoing maintenance, updating and further development of existing guidelines on the practical use of curved glass, as well as on innovative areas of application for curved glass. These include, among others:

• Load-bearing curved glass
• Load-bearing joining and connection of curved glass
• Curving and bending of thin and ultra-thin glass
• Sustainability of curved glass
• Double curvature
• Dimensioning of curved insulating glass
• Quality control and characteristics of curved glass

Many of these topics offer interfaces to the sustainability, bonding and façade technology working groups and thus open up further development potential.