What is a Metal Glazing Bead?

Not all aluminum windows are the same. “Glazing” refers to the method by which a double-pane insulating glass “sandwich” is placed or “bedded” into its sash. The “bead” refers to both the sealant used on one side to hold and seal the sandwich in place, and also to the trim part used to finish out its other side. Our “wet-glazed” design features a strong sealant that holds the glass in place to the outside of our sash, and an inside metal glazing bead, shown above to the left. Even thicker than the metal used in some “builder-grade” aluminum windows, our aluminum glazing bead cannot warp, crack or degrade like the re-grind poly vinyl chloride beads commonly exposed on the exterior of lesser windows. Our compression glazing system features a finned rubber gasket not unlike your refrigerator door at home, to further seal the glass in its sash. To demonstrate the effect of our design, this unedited photograph was taken to compare our metal bead at the left with a common PVC bead to the right that was removed from a one-year-old window due to seal failure.