Frequently Asked Questions
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Layers of metal thinner than a wavelength of light, turning your glass into a mirror for heat.
Metallised film is built by sputtering — metal is vaporised in a vacuum and deposited onto polyester in layers a fraction of the thickness of a human hair. Those layers behave like a mirror tuned to infrared: instead of soaking up solar energy the way carbon and ceramic films do, they turn it around and send it back outside.
That is how Spectrum Steel turns away 89% of infrared even at its lightest shade, with up to 77% total solar energy rejection. It also gives the glass a bright silver finish nothing else in the range does, and makes the film noticeably tougher. There is one real trade-off, and it's further down this page.
Every window film has to do something with the sun's infrared energy. Carbon and ceramic films absorb it: the particles take the heat into the film, which warms up and then sheds that heat in both directions — some outward, some inward through the glass.
Metallised film never lets the energy in. The metal layers reflect infrared at the outer surface, so the glass stays cooler and there is less heat in the system to begin with. On a car parked in full Jakarta sun, that is the difference between a cabin the air conditioning has to fight and one it only has to maintain.
Up to 89% infrared rejection and 77% total solar energy rejection, with 89% infrared already at the lightest 30% VLT shade. Reflection lets a lighter film do more of the work.
Absorbing films hold heat in the film itself and shed some of it inward. Metallised film bounces solar energy back outside before the glass can warm up at all.
99% of ultraviolet light blocked — the wavelengths that crack dashboards, bleach upholstery and reach skin through side glass on every drive.
Metallised film has a reflective sheen no other construction gives you. From outside it reads as a bright mirror in daylight; from inside the view stays open.
The outside face is reflective and the cabin behind it is darker, so daylight privacy is excellent — people see the sky and the street, not what's on your seat.
The metal layers make the film more rigid and more scratch-resistant than dyed or carbon constructions, and there is no dye in it to fade.
Metal reflects radio waves as well as heat. On a fully wrapped car, metallised film can weaken phone reception, GPS accuracy, keyless entry, toll transponders and radar-based driver assistance. How much depends on how many windows are covered and how strong the signal was to begin with.
Two ways round it. Put Steel on the rear and rear-side glass and leave the front doors and windshield to a non-metallic film — you keep most of the heat rejection where the sun actually lands. Or choose nano carbon, which is non-conductive and does nothing to signals at all. Any Spectrum installer will walk you through both.
| Property | Basic dyed film | Spectrum nano carbon | Spectrum Steel (metallised) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What's in the film | Organic dye in polyester | Carbon nanoparticles | Sputtered metal layers |
| How it handles heat | Darkens light, lets infrared through | Absorbs infrared in the film | Reflects infrared off the glass |
| Peak heat rejection | Low | Up to 93% IRR · 80% TSER | Up to 89% IRR · 77% TSER |
| Look from outside | Flat black, fades | Deep matte black, no shine | Silver reflective finish |
| Phone, GPS, keyless | Unaffected | Unaffected | Can interfere |
| Scratch resistance | Low | Good | Excellent |
| Spectrum series | — | NEO | Steel |
One series, three shades. Note that the darkest is not automatically the strongest on every number — Steel 40 out-rejects both darker shades on infrared.
Silver reflective finish
Spectrum® Steel silver reflective finish with heat rejection up to 89% IRR and 77% TSER. Bounces heat away before it reaches the glass.
| Shade | VLT | UVR | IRR | TSER | Preview |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Steel 40 | 30%Medium | 99% | 89% | 68% | Try it |
| Steel 60 | 20%Dark | 99% | 70% | 64% | Try it |
| Steel 80 | 12%Dark | 99% | 88% | 77% | Try it |
Backed by a 5-year Spectrum warranty.
The reflective finish is the thing people most want to see before committing. Put it on the glass, look at it from both sides, and take the result to an installer.
Performance figures are laboratory values for the film itself; results on your vehicle depend on the glass. Some tint levels are restricted on windshields and front windows — ask a Spectrum installer about the rules where you drive.
