GM RAILING® All-Glass Railings – Q&A’s

 

Questions and Answers with regard to GM RAILING All-Glass Railings.

 

• 16. Why do Germany’s glass breakage tests play a central role?

  
  16.1. According TRAV point 5.5.1, the effects of any damage to a balustrade element must be substantiated (also the failure of end-plates).
  
  
16.2. Failure of a balustrade element, especially between the handrail and the broken glass and the effect thereon, can best be substantiated by tests since, depending on the glass choice (laminated safety glass from 2x toughened glass or laminated safety glass from 2x partially tempered glass or laminated safety glass from 2x float glass) and film thickness, the results of breaking tests can be dramatically different.
The broken glass is partly a residual stability and/or a residual load-bearing behaviour.
This can affect the entire system positively or negatively depending on the glass type.
To date, we have no known method like the residual stability of broken glass that can be conclusively substantiated mathematically.
For this reason, GM Railing has performed hundreds of glass breakage experiments - up to lengths of 4m - with original components.