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New Glass Panels Arriving at Apple's Fifth Avenue Store Cube

I hope the glass panes have some kind of protective laminate coating; one rioter throws a chair and there goes the whole panel.
 
tsadi said:
Glass that's 2 inches thick - wow!

Aside from tank windows, I've never seen anything with glass that thick. That makes it interesting at least for me.

I wonder though, is it really difficult building glass that thick with those sizes? Or just very expensive?
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Not too difficult...they use much thicker glass in large aquariums, although a lot of the newer ones have now switched to high quality hard plastics, which I would have thought Apple may do. It gives the same appearance and feel as glass, but it much stronger and cheaper to produce.

You'll find that regardless of what they used for these panels, they will have a plastic coating on them to prevent shattering.
 
A back of the envelope calculation suggests that each panel weighs about 9,000 pounds (about 4,100 kg for non-US folks). Wow. All I can say is that it's a good thing those windows don't have to open.

As for all the people complaining about Apple wasting its money... a large part of what Apple sells is image and design. I'm sure that they think that improving the design of one of their flagship stores will help them sell more products, and they're probably right.
 
I always like watching constructy things and having been to the store in NYC, I'll be curious now to see how different it looks when it is completed. To me, the old glass seemed pretty awesome.

And I'm not sure that this fits in a 'rumors' site, since this is clearly a fact. 😉
 
thermal said:
I hope the glass panes have some kind of protective laminate coating; one rioter throws a chair and there goes the whole panel.
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During the riots in London some looters tried to get into a jewellery store. They tried for twenty minutes, and they used more than just chairs. Couldn't get through the glass. Probably the hardest twenty minutes of work in their sad lives 😡

Just noticed these low lives read MacRumors and modded me down 🙂
 
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Those panels must be incredibly heavy. Hope it can withstand earthquakes (something the east coast is not accustom too).
 
For Apple geeks and design & architect fans this IS news. Apple has developed new glass manufacturing which will go way beyond Apple eventually. If you watched Steve Jobs at the Cupertino Council meeting discussing the new Apple headquarters, he went on about Apples technological advances in glass and that the new building will have gigantic seamless curved panels. Something very new and amazing.
 
gnasher729 said:
During the riots in London some looters tried to get into a jewellery store. They tried for twenty minutes, and they used more than just chairs. Couldn't get through the glass. Probably the hardest twenty minutes of work in their sad lives 😡

Just noticed these low lives read MacRumors and modded me down 🙂
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Completely agree - no idea why your original post was downrated. You're making a point that's relevant, topical and not in support of the rioters. Bizarre.
 
Actually, this IS news, apparently.

I read a bit of fluff a while back when Apple was touting it's "gorilla glass" for iDevices, talking about how Apple had all this expertise in glass due to it's iconic stores.

I gather, though, that one has none to do with the other. But it seems the glass used in the stores is just as cutting-edge. (Actually, more - gorilla glass has been around for decades, waiting for a greater fo.... a good use case.)

I'd love to read more about this huge panes of glass and their manufacturer. (Why? For the same reason kids are fascinated with bulldozers and other large construction vehicles...) but I haven't found much, other than references to fairly rapid evolution of the maximum size that can be produced, and the fact that there is now a second manufacturer than can make these panes. (Originally, just a German company, now a Chinese one.)
 
So these pictures need to be re-taken.....my visit summer 2010 with family.
IMG_8877.jpg


are they re-doing the inside stairs also?
IMG_8920.jpg
 
That's a heavy chunk of glass

So, how much does each panel weigh?...

Well... the density of glass varies widely, but an approximate average is 2.5g/cm3.

Using the measurements of 32 ft x 10 ft x 2 inches, the volume of each panel is approximately 1,510,231.818 cm3.

At 2.5g/cm3, this equals approximately 604,092.727 grams, or 604.09 kg or 1,330.60 lbs.

(Check my math... sounds about right to me).

Don't drop that sucker on your toe!
 
tsadi said:
Glass that's 2 inches thick - wow!

Aside from tank windows, I've never seen anything with glass that thick. That makes it interesting at least for me.

I wonder though, is it really difficult building glass that thick with those sizes? Or just very expensive?
Click to expand...

Some Banks use 1" inch glass, but almost 2"!!! the weight has to be incredibly heavy! It would easily crush a person in no time.
 
PecanEater said:
I love people who complain about these "unnecessary" posts as if they're cluttering up very busy lives but then take the time to post complaints.
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Exactly. If MR only posted one story a day that was a TRUE news story, these same people would be whining that they're not posting enough stories.

For those of you who think MR is posting too many non-news stories, how about this: Instead of whining about it in the forums or the comments, why don't you go track down three really good stories that are newsworthy and submit them to the tips link? Really. Just once, go try it. See how difficult it is to come up with good stories. Then see if you're so happy to complain in the future.
 
they should make the apple stores with titanium casing now that the iPhone5 is confirmed to have it.
 
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