Curtain walls are classified by their method of fabrication and installation in two categories.
Unitized curtain wall vs stick system.
Stick systems are installed on site with the frame sequence followed by glazing and are being placed on scaffolding or cradle facilities where you require more manpower on site than unitized glazing.
Due to the great structural strength curtain wall can handle larger glass sizes than window wall.
Offers a detailed description of stick built and unitized curtain walls including system types thermal performance characteristics acoustic and aesthetic features and.
Unitised systems are made of large units and erected on the building facade.
For larger projects in major cities unitized is now more or less the standard.
The entire fenestration system essentially locks together providing excellent protection against high wind loads and earthquakes.
On the other hand stick built curtain walls are installed piece by piece.
On the average smaller projects tend to make more sense for stick curtain wall since the lead times are shorter and there are less expensive prefabbed pieces.
Unitized systems can be economically friendly shifting labor expense from field to factory.
Less than 3 000 m2 go for stick.
They are then shipped to the job site and erected on the building façade.
In either stick built or unitized systems curtain wall provides superior structural strength.
The fabrication process for unitized systems is more consistent than for stick built curtain walls as unitized wall systems are constructed in almost an assembly line fashion indoors and under controlled environmental conditions.
Unitized curtain wall systems are comprised of large units that are assembled and glazed in the factory.
In other words the differences mainly lie in their method of installation.
In cases where the wall configuration seems as complex and having more corners and drastic changes in the plane the stick system would be more economical.
Unitized can offer performance.
Stick built and unitized systems.
High speed installation reduced field installation costs by maintaining high quality control with very minimum on site manpower.
Unitized systems are fully assembled in the factory and installation being done on site with the help of cranage facilities benefiting from.
In this system most of the erection and fabrication are done at the site.
The curtain wall construction is classified as two as stick system and unitized system.
This is mostly adopted in low rise and mid rise buildings.