The Vessel is a landmark, built as part of the Hudson Yards redevelopment project in Manhattan. Built to plans by British designer Thomas Heatherwick, the elaborate honeycomb-like structure rises over 16 floors and consists of 154 flights of stairs, 2,500 steps and 80 platforms that visitors can climb. The copper-clad steps, which are arranged like a jungle gym and modelled after Indian step wells, can each accommodate 1,000 people.
The Croatian company Formator, manufacturer of safety glass, based in Rijeka, produced the over 4,000 square feet of 1010.4 low-iron, tempered laminated glass with SentryGlas interlayer. The production of the low iron glass was very challenging, as the tolerances of the shaped glass were very strict. Tyrolit took up the challenge and delivered its flat peripheral diamond wheels on vertical CNC machines. Formator employed the use of both segmented and trapezoidal peripheral discs with diameters of 200 millimeters to reach tolerances near zero.
Formator employees working with laminated glass not only benefited from the edge processing, but also from the high feed speed and the optimal start-up of the wheels, say officials. In addition, the long service life of the peripheral grinding wheels made fewer interruptions necessary for wheel changes.
