Project location:
Shanghai
Glass Configuration:
12mm + 2.28SGP + 12mm LOW-E + 16AR + 12mm + 2.28SGP + 12mm Ultra-clear tempered laminated insulated glass
12mm + 2.28SGP + 12mm LOW-E + 16AR + 12mm + 2.28SGP + 12mm + 2.28SGP + 12mm + 2.28SGP + 12mm Ultra-clear tempered laminated insulated glass (enhanced safety configuration)
Maximum Glass size:
9,354mm × 3,055mm
At Zhongbo Glass, we believe that the world’s most advanced technology companies deserve the world’s most advanced building envelopes. When Huawei planned its state-of-the-art Qingpu R&D Center in Shanghai, the architectural vision demanded a glass facade of extraordinary scale, absolute clarity, and uncompromising safety. We were chosen as the exclusive glass manufacturer to deliver this vision.
The A2 building features some of the largest single-pane SGP laminated tempered insulated glass units ever produced for a research facility. With panel lengths approaching 9.4 meters and two distinct safety configurations — one of which includes a multi-laminate inner panel with four glass plies and three SGP interlayers — this project pushed every facet of our manufacturing expertise to its limit. Today, the Huawei R&D Center stands as a beacon of innovation, clad in glass that reflects the very precision and reliability for which Huawei is known worldwide.
The facade requirements varied across the building based on occupancy, blast resistance needs, and thermal performance. We engineered and delivered two specialized configurations, both utilizing a common outer insulating glass structure and differing in the inner laminated panel.
12mm Ultra-Clear Tempered + 2.28mm SGP + 12mm Low-E Tempered + 16mm Argon + 12mm Ultra-Clear Tempered + 2.28mm SGP + 12mm Ultra-Clear Tempered
12mm Ultra-Clear Tempered + 2.28mm SGP + 12mm Low-E Tempered + 16mm Argon + 12mm Ultra-Clear Tempered + 2.28mm SGP + 12mm Ultra-Clear Tempered + 2.28mm SGP + 12mm Ultra-Clear Tempered + 2.28mm SGP + 12mm Ultra-Clear Tempered
Outer Laminated Panel (Common to Both): A 12mm ultra-clear tempered glass laminated with a 2.28mm SentryGlas® Plus (SGP) interlayer to a 12mm Low-E tempered glass. This panel combines strength, post-breakage safety, and high-performance solar control thanks to the sputter-coated Low-E coating on the #3 surface.
16mm Argon-Filled Cavity: The generous warm-edge spacer and argon gas fill dramatically reduce thermal transmittance, ensuring the R&D center maintains a stable interior environment with minimal energy consumption.
Inner Laminated Panel (Standard): A symmetric 12mm + 2.28SGP + 12mm ultra-clear tempered laminate, creating a robust insulating glass unit.
Inner Laminated Panel (Enhanced Safety): A formidable multi-ply laminate comprising four sheets of 12mm ultra-clear tempered glass bonded with three layers of 2.28mm SGP. This inner panel alone is over 54mm thick and provides extreme resistance to impact, blast, and forced entry — critical for protecting sensitive R&D zones and ensuring occupant safety under the most demanding scenarios.
All glass plies are ultra-clear low-iron glass, guaranteeing a brilliant, neutral transparency that eliminates the greenish tint of standard glass and floods the interior with natural daylight.
The maximum glass panel size for this project was a staggering 9,354mm in length by 3,055mm in width. A single finished panel covers nearly 28.6 square meters and, depending on the configuration, can weigh well over 3 tonnes. Producing, handling, and transporting glass at this scale represents the absolute upper echelon of architectural glass manufacturing — an arena where Zhongbo Glass leads with confidence.
Fabricating a 9.35-meter SGP laminated tempered insulated unit requires every machine in the production chain to perform at its extreme capacity, and every technician to exercise the highest level of skill. For the enhanced safety panels, the difficulty multiplies as we laminated a 4-ply inner panel and then assembled it into an IGU with a 9.35-meter outer laminate — a logistical and technical feat few factories on earth can replicate.
Tempering a 9,354mm sheet of ultra-clear glass without introducing unacceptable roller wave or edge kink is a monumental task. Our super-jumbo flat tempering furnace, capable of processing glass up to 12,000mm, applies precisely controlled heating and quenching profiles. For every ply, we achieved full tempered surface compression (over 69 MPa) while maintaining optical flatness specifications far stricter than the industry norm — essential for distortion-free reflections on such an immense facade.
SentryGlas® Plus is a stiff ionoplast interlayer that demands exacting de-airing and autoclave conditions. Laminating a 9.35-meter by 3.05-meter pair of glass sheets requires our largest automated SGP laminating line, which integrates precision nip-rolls, vacuum bag technology, and a massive autoclave. We developed customized heat-pressure cycles to ensure zero bubbles, perfect edge adhesion, and maximum optical clarity across the entire panel surface.
For the enhanced safety configuration, we laminated four 12mm tempered plies with three SGP interlayers into a single 54mm-thick monolithic panel — at 9,354mm long. This required sequential layup in a class-1 cleanroom, iterative de-airing, and a specially extended autoclave cycle to fully bond all interlayers without any glass displacement or interlayer thinning. The result is a composite glass panel with extraordinary stiffness and residual strength, capable of withstanding severe blast loads and impacts while retaining its integrity.
Coupling a 9.35-meter outer laminate with an equally large inner laminate (standard or 4-ply) into a hermetically sealed IGU demands custom-engineered assembly stations. We used synchronized vacuum lifters and laser alignment systems to maintain perfect parallelism across the 16mm cavity. The dual-seal edge system, applied with robotic precision, guarantees long-term argon retention and moisture resistance.
Transporting a 9.35-meter glass panel from our Henan factory to the Huawei R&D Center in Shanghai requires bespoke logistics. We designed multi-point articulating steel stillages, utilized air-ride trailers with vibration monitoring, and scheduled just-in-time night deliveries to navigate urban roads. Each panel arrived on-site dimensionally accurate, free of defects, and ready for glazing.
The Huawei Qingpu R&D Center encapsulates the unique strengths that make Zhongbo Glass the preferred supplier for the world’s most demanding architectural glass projects:
Unmatched Size Capability: Our furnaces, laminating lines, and IG lines routinely handle glass up to 12,000mm in length — making us one of the very few manufacturers globally capable of delivering 9.35-meter tempered laminated insulated units.
SGP and Multi-Ply Laminate Expertise: From single-interlayer SGP laminates to complex multi-ply configurations with four glass plies and three SGP interlayers, we have the dedicated cleanrooms, automated equipment, and technical know-how to produce defect-free structural glass at any scale.
All-Ultra-Clear Consistency: Our rigorous incoming-glass inspection ensures every low-iron sheet is free of inclusions and color variation, preserving the pristine transparency that premium projects demand.
Integrated Engineering Support: We partner with architects, facade consultants, and contractors from the earliest design stage, providing glass strength calculations, thermal performance modeling, and installation guidance to optimize both cost and performance.
Proven Landmark Portfolio: The Huawei R&D Center joins our elite list of mega-projects including the Tencent Cloud Tower (7.6m curved glass), Shenzhen Bay No.1 (12m vertical glass), and Wuhan SKP (7.2m 4-ply laminate), reinforcing our reputation as a global leader in jumbo architectural glass.
The Qingpu Huawei R&D Center A2 building is more than a research facility — it is a showcase of what becomes possible when visionary design meets Zhongbo Glass’s manufacturing mastery. We delivered ultra-clear tempered SGP laminated insulated glass panels up to 9,354mm × 3,055mm, including an industry-defying enhanced safety configuration with a 4-ply, triple-SGP inner laminate. This project proves once again that for Zhongbo Glass, no dimension is too large and no lamination is too complex.
Contact Zhongbo Glass today to discuss your next jumbo glass challenge. Whether you require oversized SGP laminates, multi-ply safety glass, or high-performance insulating units of any size, our team is ready to engineer the solution your project deserves.
