Commercial Window Tinting in Colorado

Solar control film goes onto glass you already have and changes how much of the sun's energy gets through it. Untreated glass absorbs solar energy and passes it into the room, which is what leaves a south or west elevation warm and bright long after anyone wants it to be. Kepler's solar tiers publish their own glare reduction and total solar heat rejection figures, so the specification can follow the elevation rather than the other way round.

In an office the complaint is rarely the temperature on its own. It is the glare on screens at the wrong time of day and the row of desks nobody wants to sit at. Film reduces the light coming through the glass while keeping the room daylit, which is the trade-off a closed blind cannot make. The neutral and ceramic tiers do that with little change to the way the building looks from outside, and the reflective tiers add daytime privacy where a ground floor is overlooked.

Tell a Kepler dealer which elevations cause the trouble and they can put a tier and a shade to it.

Aurora is Kepler's white frosted film, and it answers the rooms that need screening all day: meeting rooms, consulting rooms, glass partitions and lower storefront panels. The view is obscured while daylight still comes through, so the space does not go dark. Commercial customers often have a logo or a band cut into it, which turns a privacy job into signage at the same time.

Ask a local tinter whether they carry Kepler film or can get it. For more information, see Send us the details.

Reflective film puts a mirrored surface on the outside of the glass, so in daylight people see the reflection rather than the room. Chromosphere is the Kepler range built around that effect, with Ecliptic taking the middle route by pairing an exterior reflective face with a darker interior one. The privacy works while it is brighter outside than in, so it reverses in the evening once the lights are on, which is worth knowing before it goes on a space used at night.

Every tier in the Kepler architectural range is published at 99% UV rejection, and that is the part of the specification that matters for stock, signage, fabrics and finishes sitting in a shop window. Taking out most of the ultraviolet light slows one of the main causes of fading without changing the shade of the glass much, which is why a near clear ceramic film is often the retail choice. Ultraviolet is not the only cause, so where a display sits in direct sun the solar figures deserve the same attention.

The film pages here set out which tiers suit a bright retail elevation.

Film works on solar heat gain: the less of the sun's energy that gets through the glass, the less heat a cooling system has to deal with. How much difference that makes depends on the glazing you already have, how much of the elevation is glass and how the building is run, so the useful answer is the tier's published figures rather than a headline saving. Kepler lists total solar heat rejection, shading coefficient and solar heat gain coefficient values for its architectural tiers, and those are the numbers to compare against your own glass.

Glare is the problem people notice first and blame the sun for last. Film cuts the intensity of the light coming through, so screens stay readable and nobody is working with a hand over their eyes. Kepler publishes a glare reduction figure for each tier, 78% on Cosmic 19 and 61% on Cosmic 35 for example, so a dealer can pitch the shade at the room that has the problem instead of darkening the whole building.

When you are ready, use the search to reach a commercial dealer who can take the job on.

K-Shield is the security tier, an 8 mil film designed to help hold shattered glass together with UV protection built in. On a shopfront or a ground floor office that means a broken pane is more likely to stay bonded to the film than to come down as loose glass. What it does not do is turn a window into a rated barrier: thickness alone says nothing about forced entry, ballistic or blast performance, and the frame and fixing matter as much as the film itself.

The Colorado security window film page goes through it in more detail.

Safety and security are the same film doing two jobs. Security is about someone trying to get through the glass; safety is about what the glass does when something hits it, with the film holding fragments to the adhesive instead of letting them scatter. That matters most on large panes beside walkways, on glass doors and on internal partitions where people are close to the glazing. It is protection rather than a guarantee: the film does not stop a pane from breaking, and it is not a substitute for glass specified for impact.

In Colorado, anti-graffiti film goes on as a clear layer over the glass and takes the scratching, etching and tagging so the pane underneath does not. When it has had enough, the film is removed and a new sheet fitted rather than the glass being cut out and reglazed. Ask your dealer to confirm the product being quoted, the surfaces it suits and what replacement involves before you plan around it.