Licayan, Andrea B.

Building Technology (40060)

AR 104 TTh 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM

Reflection on Doors and Windows

The lesson, titled “Doors and Windows,” encompasses glass as a material for
building openings, its types, and different purposes. It also described and enumerated the
different fasteners and adhesives used in windows and doors.

Glass is described to be most commonly used to glaze the building openings. It

comes in different forms with each serving different purposes: foamed or cellular glass is used
for thermal insulation, glass fibers are used in textile and reinforcements for material, and lastly,
glass blocks are used in controlling the transmission of light. Flat glass also comes in different
types: sheet glass, plate glass, and float glass. The aforementioned types of flat glass have
varying degree of visibility. The sheet glass is known to have some distortion of vision thus to
minimize the distortion, glazing is applied to the glass. Plate glass and float glass, in contrast,
provide clear, undistorted vision.

The fasteners used in the building openings are enumerated as follows: nails, screws,
bolts, and adhesives. Nails come in different material (mild steel, aluminum, copper, brass, zinc,
etc.) but it should be noted that the material of the nail should be compatible with the material
that is being secured in order to avoid loss of holding power and staining of the materials.
Screws, like nails, are metal fasteners but unlike nails, they have tapered shanks and slotted
heads. Due to this, they have greater holding power and more easily removable than nails. The
number of threads determines their gripping strength. Bolts are also used as fasteners though
their design differs with nails and screws since bolts are designed to be inserted through holes in
assembled parts. Adhesives are the last fasteners that were mentioned. Unlike the fasteners
mentioned, adhesives only secure the surfaces of the two materials. They also come in different
form: solid, liquid, powder, or film.

Learning the various types of glass and forms of fasteners can help us, students, in
choosing the right material and equipment to be used in the design. As design students, it is
given that even the tiniest details such as the fasteners used can affect the design and its
durability. For safety and comfortability purposes of the users, giving attention to these details
can create a huge difference.