The event location "The Sphere" in Las Vegas attracts worldwide attention with its extraordinary LED outer shell. The construction also conceals insulating glass units in the form of parallelograms. These are equipped with the warm-edge system from the sealant and adhesive manufacturer H.B. Fuller | Kömmerling.
The dimensions of the giant sphere alone surpass all spherical buildings realised so far: 112 m high and 157 m wide would even make the twin towers of Munich's Frauenkirche disappear under the dome.
Mega project costing 2.3 billion US dollars
atosan - stock.adobe.com
But The Sphere will be known first and foremost for what happens on the shell of the sphere. For it is constructed almost entirely as an LED display and showed what it can do for the first time on 4 July 2023, American Independence Day. The videos of the sensational light show once went viral around the globe on social media.
See also: Innovative glazing solutions for museums and art galleries
The Sphere's approximately 1.2 million individually controllable LED elements illuminate the sky of the Mojave Desert in Nevada and display every conceivable light animation over an area of 54,000 square metres. Sometimes basketball, sometimes globe, sometimes fireworks, sometimes underwater world, the possibilities of programmable lighting are almost inexhaustible and the effect impressive. Architecture becomes light, shapes seem to dissolve and reassemble, entertainment and building merge into one.
The building has been under construction intermittently since 2018 and was completed in the summer of 2023 - a mega-project that ultimately cost around 2.3 billion US dollars.
Insulating glass very specific shapes
In addition to the LED elements, hundreds of state-of-the-art insulating glass units are also built into the overall construction. A large number of them do not have the usual 90-degree angles at the corners, but are shaped like a parallelogram.
Also interesting: When a robot positions the glass in the window frame
Marcus Jones - stock.adobe.com
This can be a challenge not only in the manufacture of the elements, but also in terms of the edge seal of the glass. For The Sphere, insulating glass units with the warm-edge system from H.B. Fuller | Kömmerling were used. This reactive thermoplastic spacer system is characterised by its unique appearance, maximum energy efficiency and maximum service life.
The basis for this is the special structure of the Warm Edge from Warm Edge by H.B. Fuller | Kömmerling: it consists of only one sealant, which is applied fully automatically by robot and chemically bonds with both the glass surface and the silicone secondary sealant. As a result, the entire edge seal "fuses" into a flexible and resilient unit with excellent gas-tightness and a very long service life.
