Roof and Façade
Read this article in:

A second skin for façades

At the Airbus Helicopters development center in Donauwörth, a translucent fiberglass façade ensures glare-free lighting inside and, thanks to PLEXIGLAS® film, it is ideally protected against all weather influences.

Façades combine design with function: They are the face of a building while allowing light inside and providing insulation, just like the fiberglass façade installed by Butzbach at the Airbus Helicopters development center in Donauwörth. The façade elements are protected by a PLEXIGLAS® film and are therefore resistant to UV light and humidity. This permanently preserves the aesthetic of the façade and the quality of light inside the building.

The ideal combination

At the Donauwörth site of the Airbus Helicopters, the aerospace company focuses on the construction of prototypes, development, production, service and training of helicopters. To create the ideal working conditions in the development center, the building developer and architect decided to construct large parts of the façade from translucent fiberglass. The high translucency of the material ensures shadow-free and glare-free lighting inside the building, enabling the entire façade and gate area to be used for passive, energy-efficient lighting.

© BUTZBACH / Eisert

Clear structure, low weight

The individual elements of the VARIOPLANplus fiberglass façade from Butzbach span 10 x 1 meters and create a distinctive horizontal structure. In addition, they have a high static load capacity and only transfer limited loads to the building structure thanks to their low weight of about 10 kilograms per square meter. Their thermal transmission factor equals the figure provided by modern double-glazing.

Transparent protective barrier

Weather and aggressive UV radiation can cause damage to plastics such as fiberglass, which is why all fiberglass panels from Butzbach are coated with a protective layer, like the ones in Donauwörth. “By combining fiberglass with a protective layer of PLEXIGLAS®, we ensure high and consistent quality throughout the entire lifespan of a building,” says Holger Krehl, division manager for façades at Butzbach GmbH Industrietore. The specialist company processed about 4,000 square meters of the film made from Röhm’s brand acrylic glass for the Airbus project.

Krehl particularly values the PLEXIGLAS® film’s resistances to UV radiation, wind and weather, properties which make it a popular material for façades and windows. The PLEXIGLAS® film does not turn yellow and does not crack or become brittle. The protective layer also causes less dirt to cling to the approximately 2,000 square meters of façade and the 16 lift gates in sizes of up to 8.5 x 6.5 meters. The film also covers the fiberglass fibers, meaning the individual elements retain their aesthetic and vibrant appearance for a long time. At the same time, the high transparency of the PLEXIGLAS® film allows enough sunlight to pass through, enabling the fiberglass elements to conduct daylight into the building. This means one of the biggest advantages of fiberglass façades is preserved permanently and the Airbus engineers can develop their helicopter prototypes in the best lighting conditions.

Back to overview

E-Mail

Send us a message via our contact form.

Contact form

Online Shop

Find the largest range of solid sheets, rod, tubes and equipment directly from the manufacturer in our online shop.

PLEXIGLAS® Online Shop

Contacts wordwide

If there are any questions regarding our products, please contact us or our experts in your region.

Find our experts

PLEXIGLAS® Distributors

You can obtain all of our brands from our distributors worldwide.

Find distributors

Fabricators

If you need prefabricated products or finished products made of PLEXIGLAS® or from one of our other brands, please get in touch with our fabricators.

Find fabricators

Interested in even more exciting facts?

Subscribe