Award for bird-friendly glass
27th November 2018

PILKINGTON UK has won the ‘Innovative Solution’ award at the Glass Focus 2018 awards for AviSafe, a prototype coated glass designed to prevent birds flying into windows and doors.

The glass, developed by the manufacturer’s UK-based R&D technology centre, centre, has a patterned UV-enhanced coating to make it visible to birds. Simon Slade, an ornithologist based at the centre, explained: “Millions of birds die each year when they fly into glass in homes, offices, and bus shelters and reflection strikes, when birds fly toward something reflected by the glass such as the sky or vegetation, are the main cause of the problem.
“Some existing products are effective, but reduce the transmission of the glass and the view from inside the building.”

Although AviSafe has not yet been commercially released, it has been tested on large plates of glass and Pilkington expects the coating to be used in other applications including solar control, safety and security, and noise control.

Philip Marsh, business development manager at Glass Technology Services, who presented the award, said:
“Congratulations to Pilkington UK on this innovation, which through research comparing human and avian vision in the visible and ultraviolet spectrum enabled a patterned coating to be developed and applied to the glass that is visible to birds without any significant detriment to the aesthetic properties of facades and glazing.”

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