Ever wondered what differentiates one window tint from another? Curious how long tint should last? These questions and more are answered as we speak to Richard Hall, the Managing Director of Sun-Gard Australia...
The Background of Sun-Gard Australia
"Sun-Gard Australia is the exclusive distributors of Sun-Gard film to Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
"The company that supplies our film is called Film Technologies International and they are the only specialist film manufacturer in the world. If you look at the other film manufacturers, many are just part of very big corporations so, compared to Film Technologies, they are very slow to react to market changes. Film Technologies are very proactive; for example, when the BA Ford Falcon came out with the radio aerial on the rear window, we contacted our supplier and told them the specifications of the product we wanted and within about a week and a half we had a sample. About three weeks elapsed since the release of the BA and we are already producing the right film for it - no one else could do that."
Why was the BA Falcon a challenge when many other cars have had the radio antenna integrated into the back window?
"Well, the Ford BA antenna is actually printed on the rear glass something like a demister - it isn't inside the glass. You see, when the antenna is inside the glass, fitting a metallised tint causes only a minimal effect on radio reception. The Ford isn't like that. Ford actually released a bulletin saying not to put metallised film on or you'll short out the antenna, but that's total nonsense - it just effects the reception of the radio.
"Our solution has been to use a dyed tint - but not the traditional variety. Sun-Gard invented the technology of producing film without using dye. Dyed film has the capacity to change colour and, as you'd know, many of the older style dyed films go purple. Sun-Gard worked out how to make tint films using pigments within the film itself - they laminate the pigments with an internal adhesive. The Sun-Gard film actually uses dyes in addition to these pigments - but they don't change colour. It's a huge advantage over the older style film."
Tell us about some of the other technology of window tints.
"Some of our competitors like talking about lots of layers and lots of heat rejection - it's all gloss and nonsense. In reality - if you look at how film is constructed - starting from the outer surface you have scratch resistant coating that contains UV screeners. You then have a polyester layer and that can be clear or coloured. Then we have a laminating adhesive that - in some of our range - contains colour. Next is a metallised polyester, so there's metal on top of the polyester and then a mounting adhesive that bonds the film to the glass. As part of the manufacturing process, there are UV screeners put in as well - there are screeners on both sides of the film. Lastly, there's a backing sheet that is removed and thrown away when the film is applied.
"So, look, in the basic films there are half a dozen layers at minimum - if you start dividing it up and saying the UV screeners are an extra layer, like some of our competitors have done, you can get the layer count up to ten.
"Some of our metal-only films, that don't have any colour other than the metal, are very high performing films. They have 2 or 3 layers of polyester and multiple layers of metal, which gives better heat rejection and lower reflectivity compared to a single layer of metal with the same light transmission. That means you can produce a legal metal-only film that would normally be very reflective and not pass laws. The local law states that you can't have more than 10 percent reflectivity from the outside.
"Another thing that's becoming relevant is safety film. With this fitted, the glass can shatter in an accident or during a theft but it will remain held together by the film. If someone breaks the glass from the outside they've got to continue smashing their way through since the film holds the window form together. Conversely, if you're in an accident where the glass breaks you can get out by putting you hand through. A thicker version is also available. In the UK there's a film being used on some executive vehicles that is so strong you can hit it with a baseball bat and it won't break. It's awesome - I've seen footage where they swing a weight into the side glass of a car and it hits so hard its sways dramatically, but the glass stays intact."
Why is metal used in some tint film?
"The most basic answer is that it rejects more heat, though, some people just want a classy, lustrous look. Other people go for a black film for the best aesthetics but, yes, a metal film does offer the best heat rejection performance."
Does Sun-Gard supply tint for OE manufacturers?
"No, none of the manufacturers fit film on the cars. Well, that's not quite true - our distributor in Brisbane, for example, is doing all the tinting on the new Audis there. That's a factory option effectively. Most of the manufacturers are only interested in producing a vanilla type vehicle."
So is the aftermarket type tint no different to these supposed factory option tints?
"The quality of a tint job is largely dependant upon who fits it. There are five main importers of film into this country, so there are five main sources - all of the products, in essence, are very similar. Sun-Gard, as I mentioned, invented the colour in the adhesive - which was originally scoffed at - but it's now widely used."
What sort of life do you get out of today's tint films?
"That's a very tough question to answer because it's dependant upon many factors. If you look at a vehicle parked in the sun all day every day, the tint will have a shorter life than it would if it was kept under cover.
"In the last 15 years or so, a number of factors have affected lifespan of films. If we go that far back, the film we were producing had a longer lifespan than it did just 5 or 6 years ago. The reason is linked to the fact rear windows became more and more curved and, therefore, they became very much harder to apply film to. In response, the tint manufacturers had to change the adhesive so it was tackier and more aggressive. Unfortunately, that adhesive from about 5 years ago was later discovered to have a shorter lifespan. All of the tint manufacturers had to address this same problem, because they all formulated new adhesives. After Sun-Gard changed their adhesive - as well as adding more UV screeners - we were back into a phase of good life expectancy.
"The old adhesives you see on cars with huge bubbles - that's adhesive failure caused by bad manufacturing. They haven't got all the solvent out of the adhesive. The dye used in dyed film is put in with a solvent and that can affect the adhesive; the adhesive itself starts off as a liquid with about 95 percent solvent that's evaporated out. If it's not all properly evaporated, that can lead to adhesive failure over time. If there's no dyed film at all - as is the case with most of our range - there's one less thing to worry about as a potential problem."
How much heat and UV do typical tint films screen?
"The industry, in general, has an unfortunate tendency to exaggerate.
"Originally when cars were manufactured they had clear glass, which stopped virtually no heat. Then they brought out standard tinted glass, which has a visible light transmission of about 85 percent - in other words, it gives a 15 percent reduction in light transmission so it's virtually clear. This glass stops maybe 10 percent of the heat - maybe 15 - depending on various factors. When you put the older dyed polyester style window tinting on, it worked simply by being darker than the glass and therefore reducing light transmission. The total heat reduction was maybe 30 percent.
"Unfortunately the industry has now started looking for big numbers for heat rejection. Occasionally, unscrupulous operators are claiming up to 75 percent heat rejection, which is just impossible with anything legal. The average heat reduction is around 50 percent these days with high quality films.
"It used to be stated - incorrectly - that glass did not permit the transmission of UV in any way that was dangerous. That's proven as a complete furphy. Most people who've got skin cancer from driving a taxi or something have it on their right arm or the right side of their face. Laminated glass - as in the windscreen - stops about 92 percent of UV. Combine that with a quality tint film and you can effectively prevent UV coming in at all.
"Some years ago, we looked at UV levels around the world and convinced Sun-Gard that if they could produce a film that could hold up well in Australia it could hold up anywhere. We'd always suspected UV in Australia is worse than anywhere else - and it is. Apparently there are only two places on Earth that has worse UV than Darwin - one is Mount Everest and the other is a mountain in New Guinea."
Have you measured cabin temperatures before and after installing a film?
"The temperature inside the cabin is very hard to define because there are too many variables.
"The outside temperature has a profound effect on the degree to which the car can lose heat - if it's a very hot day, the paintwork and windows are less capable of radiating heat to the atmosphere. With the lower air temperatures in winter, more of the car's heat can be absorbed to atmosphere.
"If you look at the temperature the interior can reach when parked in direct sunlight you'd be shocked - we've measured, on a 38 degree Celsius day, the temperature inside the back of the vehicle was 84 degrees C. And that was a car with film on it - without film it'd get hotter again.
If you park a car in the sun for a short time without tint it gets very hot very fast. With window tint installed, the rate that the vehicle heats up is considerably slower.
"Another thing to consider is, if a car is parked in the sun all day, having tint wont effect the temperature. It builds up over time - the tint gives you a delay."
What sort of effect does tint have on visibility?
"It's an interesting point. If you look at what Australian law permits in all states - except South Australia - you can have a resultant visible light transmission (a resultant VLT) of 35 percent; by that they mean the combination of the glass and the film must allow 35 percent of light to pass through. That doesn't sound a lot, but the human eye is capable of reading in moonlight or bright sunlight - the latter only just. We're talking a light huge variation, and because the human eye adjusts logarithmically to the amount of light it's receiving, you can drop the light transmission by 80 percent and you perceive it as about a 10 percent reduction in visibility. So dropping the light transparency by 65 percent - with 35 percent tint on a clear window - the reduction in visibility is negligible. In some situations it's actually improved overall because glare is reduced, but it's very difficult to quantify."
Which films offer the best performance in terms of UV protection, heat rejection and longevity?
"All film stops virtually all UV. There is no significant UV transmitted by any film - it varies maybe 0.1 or 5 percent depending on various factors. If you're stopping 95 percent of UV you're stopping enough to achieve solid protection.
"Sun-Gard's top-of-the-range product is the Endurance, which is referred to as a metal-only but that's a bit of a misnomer. It's really metal and polyester - it's metal-only in the fact there's no dye or colouring other than the metal. There's nothing in it to fade - it's the best possible long-life construction.
"In the middle of the range we've got a dyed film with metal construction, and one with a dye in the laminating adhesive with metal construction. The Desert series is the dyed film and metal, and the PerformX series is the metallised film with colouring in the laminate adhesive. If you look at that construction using the pigmented adhesive, the colour cannot change the way film goes purple when it's dyed.
"The fourth model is a laminated dyed film that's necessary for cars like the BA Falcon with their integrated radio aerial. That's the oldest style of non-reflective film; we've had to go back and improve some of the older designs. We've made that the same colour and style as the PerformX.
Do you expect the new film for BA Falcons to fade?
"What we expect is most people will use a dyed film only on the rear window - we'll use a high performance film on the rest of the car. We have set out to manufacture a film that will match our existing high performance film, so you can have the laminated dye film on the rear and the metallised film on the sides. It's a good compromise but it's not an ideal solution. I don't know if manufacturers will be responsive to complaints about having to use lower quality film on the rear - that remains to be seen."
What is the typical cost of having car windows tinted?
"Prices vary a little bit, but - for a good job - it's about $400 on average. It probably goes up to $500, but it might go down to about $250 for a cheaper film. And, look, some outlets discount more heavily than others. Of course, it also depends on the size of the glass areas - a ute is obviously cheaper than a full cabin four-wheel-drive."
Contact:
Sun-Gard Australia
+61 3 9872 9872
www.sun-gard.net
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