Digitally Printed False Ceiling
- Client
- Digitally Printed False Ceiling
- Year
- 2023
- Sector
- Interiors
This project is a false ceiling built from digitally printed glass rather than board or metal. The artwork is printed in ceramic ink and fired into the glass surface during toughening, so it becomes part of the glass and will not fade, discolour or peel the way an applied film would.
Glass Solutions Used
- TPRS Innovink — Digitally Printed Glass
The glazing brief
What interiors glazing has to deliver
Decorative interior glass divides into two processes that are often conflated. Back painted, or lacquered, glass carries a cured coating on its rear face and is an interior surface product. Digitally printed glass carries ceramic ink fired into the surface during toughening, making it permanent, weatherable and suitable for overhead and feature installations. Anything installed above head height is also safety glazing, and should be laminated so it is retained if it breaks.
Glass Insights
Interiors glazing questions
Yes, and it is done for feature areas where a board or metal ceiling would be inert. Because the panels sit overhead, they are a safety-critical position and must be laminated, so that a broken pane is retained on its interlayer rather than falling. The support system has to be designed for the weight of glass, which is considerably heavier than the alternatives.
By digital ceramic printing. Ceramic inks are jetted onto the glass from supplied artwork and then fired into the surface during toughening, so the image fuses into the glass and becomes permanent. Colours are matched against fired samples rather than a screen, because the ceramic palette is narrower than a printing press and glass carries a slight green cast.
Back painted, or lacquered, glass carries a cured lacquer on its rear face and is an interior surface product for splashbacks, shutters and cladding. Digitally printed glass carries ceramic ink fired into the surface, making it permanent and weatherable, so it can be used overhead, on floors and outside. They are different products for different positions.
Only as much as the coverage you specify. A solid print is opaque, while a dot or line pattern lets a controllable proportion of light through, which is how graduated privacy and solar shading patterns are produced. The coverage percentage is set at design stage and is repeatable across a run.