Adhesives and Sealants for the Glass Industry

H.B. Fuller | KÖMMERLING offers one of the world’s most comprehensive product range for the glass industry, all from a single source. Our primary sealants, reactive and non-reactive secondary sealants all fulfill the highest requirements of international certification standards. They are laboratory and field-tested in a variety of extreme and accelerated aging conditions, ensuring reliability and application flexibility. We offer a solution for nearly every Insulating Glass (IG) configuration.

Primary Seal

Polyisobutylene

The primary sealant is the key to maintaining a moisture vapor and gas tight seal for long term unit performance. The polyisobutylene seals the spacer width to the glass and prevents moisture from entering the insulating glass unit and keeps the gas sealed inside and unable to escape.

Our polyisobutylene sealants are characterized by an extremely low moisture vapor transmission rate and excellent gas retention while also providing superior adhesion to glass and spacer bars. All of our PIBs fulfill the requirements of EN 1279 and ASTM E2190.

Secondary Seal

The secondary seal acts as a second layer of sealing, and more importantly, as the structural component of the insulating glass edge. It is responsible for maintaining the unit's structural integrity during expansion and contraction caused by environmental forces like temperature fluctuations, barometric pressure changes and wind speeds. All our standard secondary sealants comply fully with EN 1279 and ASTM E2190 standards and are approved for use with our Direct Glazing Systems.

Polysulfide

Our 2-component polysulfide sealants feature a low moisture vapor transmission rate, excellent gas retention, and a wide range of adhesion properties. They tolerate mix ratio deviations of up to ±20%.

Polyurethane

Our 2-component polyurethane sealants are characterized by a low moisture vapor transmission rate and good gas retention, and also by fast adhesion build-up and very good adhesive properties to the surfaces of many frame materials.

Silicone

For high UV stability of the edge sealant, silicones are preferred as secondary sealants. Our silicone sealants offer excellent UV resistance, along with superior weather sealing and temperature resistance.

Hot Melt and Reactive Hot Melt

Our hot melt sealants are known for their extremely low moisture vapor transmission rate and exceptional gas retention. They melt easily in tank and drum melting equipment, making them easy to process and suitable for both automated production and manual application.

H.B. Fuller’s Ködispace 4SG Warm Edge System is the premier solution for both commercial and residential applications. Characterized by high energy efficiency, superior gas retention and automated processes resulting in more precise spacer placement, Ködispace 4SG is the first reactive thermoplastic spacer system available.

Overview

Features and benefits of Ködispace 4SG include:

• Reduced labor costs (given the highly automated process)
• Overall higher quality and more durable insulating glass (IG)
• Improved performance over foam spacers
• Low moisture vapor transmission rate
• High flexibility
• Long service life

Manufacturing

The automated manufacturing process allows manufacturers to create windows that are not only beautiful, but are also long-lasting and energy-efficient.

Manufacturing advantages include:

• Simplified inventory and logistics
• Reduced amount of machinery required
• Simplified production
• Efficient floor space utilization
• Reduced scrap
• Savings in material costs

Design

The patented formulation chemically bonds to glass and silicone secondary sealant. There is no spacer migration, and it has a higher temperature stability than standard insulating glass with PIB and an increased resistance to incompatible glazing conditions. Migration resistance is proven through extensive laboratory testing.

The invisible thermoplastic spacer system ultimately results in a more visually appealing insulating glass, which creates a harmonious connection between glass and frame. Additionally, the auto-adjusting application provides unparalleled flexible design freedom and triple glazing manufacturing precision.

Performance

Ködispace 4SG is certified to ASTM E2188/E2189/E2190 standards and is included on the IGCC/IGMA Reviewed Spacer and Integrated Spacers list. It fulfills the requirements of the EN 1279-2 and EN 1279-3 European standards, and even after five cycles, the dew point remained below -40°C, the max Iav was 12 percent, and the gas content was still greater than 85 percent.

The Intercept® technology involves creating a U-profile spacer directly during the insulating glass manufacturing process. A metal tape is formed into a U-profile with a desiccant matrix inside to dry the airspace. The profile is coated with hot melt on the outside, which bonds it to the glass, seals it against moisture and ensures long-term moisture vapor resistance and gas retention. The Intercept® Spacer System was designed for speed, efficiency and quality, creating a perfect fit for our desiccant matrix and our broad line of hot melt butyls.

H.B. Fuller’s Integrated Intercept® Solutions are state-of-the-art window sealants designed to help you simplify your materials acquisition process and enable you to create the ideal combination of price point and quality requirements for your end product.

Features and benefits of Integrated Intercept® Solutions include:

• Customizable Solutions: Offers a choice of a quality desiccated matrix with a quality butyl or a curable one-component sealant for quick, seamless integration with the Intercept Spacer system and GED production lines.
• Field-Tested Packages: Packaged solutions that have been extensively field-tested and optimized for maximum productivity with Intercept® assembly lines, ensuring proven effectiveness.
• Moisture and VOC Adsorption: The desiccated matrix provides adsorption of moisture and volatile organic components within the insulating glass unit (IGU).
• Durable Single-Component Sealants: These sealants adhere strongly to both the glass and spacer, creating a durable seal.

Performance

H.B. Fuller offers the original desiccated matrix certified for use with the Intercept® system. Our matrix products are high quality and provide a trouble-free service record that is unmatched in the fenestration industry. Our Intercept® solutions offer multiple application temperature and performance options, with both hot melt and matrix and desiccant components, providing flexibility that others may not.

Commitment to Innovation

H.B. Fuller is committed to ensuring that its window adhesives and sealants are the most innovative and dependable products available. We continuously seek new solutions for the fenestration industry and are dedicated to being a worldwide leader in insulating glass and window solutions.

Key Products

• Desiccant Matrix: Provides adsorption of moisture and volatile organic compounds, ensuring the longevity and efficiency of the insulating glass units.
• Hot melt: Used to coat the U-profile spacer, ensuring a strong bond and seal to the glass..
• Reactive Hot melt: Offers enhanced performance and durability in various environmental conditions.

By focusing on these core elements, H.B. Fuller’s Integrated Intercept® Solutions enhance the quality and efficiency of the insulating glass manufacturing process, supporting high productivity and long-term reliability.

Modern windows are required to meet various high standards: they must be energy-efficient to reduce energy consumption and enhance thermal insulation, visually appealing to offer aesthetic versatility and improve building design, flexible in shape and size to accommodate architectural needs, and burglar-resistant to enhance security and prevent unauthorized entry. H.B. Fuller offers multiple solutions for building better windows.

Back bedding is the application of a sealant or adhesive bead to the backside of window or door components, ensuring a tight seal and strong bond between the glass and frame. This technique enhances weather resistance, energy efficiency, and structural integrity by preventing air and water infiltration, absorbing shocks and vibrations, and securing the glass in place for long-term durability and performance.

H.B Fullers offers single-component sealants designed for use in back bedding operations that are equally well-suited for use in the automatic or semi-automatic manufacture of aluminum, vinyl, or wood sash windows. These warm applied sealants meet AAMA 800 performance requirements and once applied, they instantly deliver a high-strength bond that allows your windows to advance to the next processing step. This not only saves time and precious floor space, but it also helps move your production from a batch to a continuous process for improved throughput.

Direct Glazing is a modern window bonding technique where insulating glass is directly adhered to the window sash, ensuring uniform load distribution across the entire bonding area instead of relying on selective setting blocks. This approach greatly enhances the window's static properties, allowing for thinner frames, reduced weight, larger pane sizes and greater design flexibility, while also improving overall safety and burglar resistance.

H.B. Fuller has developed specialized system solutions for various window frame materials, including wood, plastic, and aluminum. Depending on the profile system, different bonding positions, such as overlap, rebate and glass edge, can be utilized to optimize performance and aesthetics. Our Ködiglaze adhesives are polyurethane, or silicone based, and characterized by very good weathering performance, temperature resistance and an optimal relationship between stability and flow behavior. They also offer excellent creep resistance and are compatible with our insulating glass sealants.

Structural Glazing is a modern architectural technique where glass is bonded to a building's structural framing using high-strength, weather-resistant silicone adhesives. This method eliminates the need for conventional mechanical fasteners, creating a sleek, continuous glass façade that enhances aesthetic appeal, maximizes natural light, and offers improved thermal insulation and weatherproofing. Commonly used in high-rise buildings and commercial projects, structural glazing provides a clean, modern look while maintaining the building's structural integrity and safety.

H.B. Fuller offers structural glazing silicones with high mechanical strength and excellent elasticity. These silicones are approved for use in non-supported façade systems and are compatible with our secondary and weathering sealants.

Glass allows high-quality natural daylight to enter a room, providing timeless elegance and transparency and making it a cornerstone of modern architecture. Glass façades have significantly impacted contemporary design and will shape our cityscapes for decades to come. These façades must meet the most demanding aesthetic expectations while also functioning as technically advanced systems and fulfilling various construction requirements. Our structural glazing solutions seamlessly integrate these needs.

Our high-performance, silicone-based structural glazing products ensure that façades, with their unique and captivating designs, remain durable even under extreme climate conditions. With Ködispace 4SG, our innovative Warm Edge System designed specifically for structural glazing, we achieve extremely tight and long-lasting gas-filled glass façades.

Structural Glazing

Structural glazing is a technique in façade construction where glass elements are bonded exclusively with specially developed high-performance silicone sealants to a load-bearing aluminum or stainless-steel structure. This method ensures that static and dynamic loads, such as the weight of the façade, wind and snow loads, and thermal expansion are effectively transferred to the substructure.

Secondary Sealing

For the secondary sealing of insulating glass units, only high-modulus silicones are authorized for use in structural glazing façades. H.B. Fuller silicone sealants are specifically developed for this application, offering excellent UV and weathering resistance. They are also proven to be compatible with the H.B. Fuller Warm Edge System, Ködispace 4SG.

Weather sealing

Weather sealing is used to seal the joints between glass panes, with silicone being the material of choice for this purpose. Good absorption of movement, along with UV and weather resistance, is particularly important. Our 1-component silicones protect the façade against water intrusion and maintain design integrity over the long term due to the excellent aging resistance.

Warm Edge System for Structural Glazing

Ködispace 4SG was specifically developed as a Warm Edge System for structural glazing, meeting the associated high demands better than virtually any other system. Physical forces ensure fast initial adhesion, while the chemical bonding with glass and silicone provides excellent long-term stability. This makes Ködispace 4SG a robust and resilient Warm Edge System especially suitable for structural glazing applications in areas with extreme temperatures.

The façade as a supplier of electricity

In addition to the energy efficiency of a façade, energy generation is a modern theme in architectural design. Similar to insulating glass, solar panels can also be produced with the elastic edge seal from H.B. Fuller. We have been implementing solutions for load-bearing bonding in building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) for many years.

Smart glass is the future! Laminated glass combines transparency and outstanding design with special functional properties, making it suitable for a wide variety of applications.

With our unique range of LOCA (Liquid Optical Clear Adhesives) and our collaboration with TTEC GmbH, we have developed groundbreaking manufacturing processes for glass lamination. This includes lamination with alternative substrates and the embedding of smart components such as LEDs, display elements, and dynamic functional films. These safe and innovative production processes enable a wide range of additional functions to be encapsulated between glass layers. Combined with the versatility of wet chemistry, this opens up nearly limitless potential for innovative laminated glass design. Our solutions enhance performance in safety, security, structural integrity, and well-being functions across architectural, automotive, and home appliance applications.

Security

Ködiguard cast resins have been specially developed for producing laminated glass with security-relevant properties. By injecting the transparent Ködiguard cast resin between two flat glass panes, a laminated safety glass (LSG) pane is created. This not only provides optimal protection against break-ins and shootings but also significantly reduces the risk of injury if the glass breaks.

Soundproofing

As noise pollution continues to increase, soundproofing is becoming increasingly important alongside the security properties of windows. We offer bespoke Ködiphone cast resins for the production of laminated glass with soundproofing properties. This type of glass is primarily used in private residences, office buildings, and hotels.

Media Functionality

H.B. Fuller has developed a special cast resin for the production of laminated glass with multimedia properties. By embedding LEDs into the laminated glass, we create an innovative high-tech product that can transform buildings into monitors, resulting in an active media façade. This not only provides space for information display but also offers opportunities for architainment (architecture and entertainment).

Additionally, the laminated glass produced with Ködilan LED features excellent soundproofing and security properties, both of which are increasingly important in modern architecture.