What Is Glow In The Dark Sand?
While there are a number of different types of glow sand available on the market – some that perform and others that do not. Most are using some variation of Strontium Aluminate pigment with an inert filler. AGT™ - Ambient Glow Technology has developed a proprietary type of non-toxic, high performance glow sand which is available in 3 different glow colors: Sky Blue, Aqua Blue, and Safety Yellow. It’s available in two different mesh sizes: Fine (250-350 mesh) and Coarse (20-40 mesh).
Glow sand is typically available ‘uncoated’. What ‘uncoated’ means is that it is unprotected and will disassociate or breakdown when mixed with water and cease to perform. This obviously poses a problem for any concrete, cement, stucco or plaster application where water is utilized. In order to circumvent this problem, each grain of AGT™ Fine glow sand has been treated with a proprietary coating that makes it waterproof and thereby ‘concrete-friendly’. AGT™ glow in the dark sand can also be used in solvent or water-based epoxies and sealers.
How Can Glow Sand Be Applied?
Glow sand can be applied in a variety of ways from hand-broadcasting over a fresh/wet surface to mixed integrally in a batch.
Let’s look at the hand-broadcasting technique first. Hand-broadcasting or seeding AGT™ glow sand is a technique whereby the user sprinkles/broadcasts the glow sand over a setting surface. The best way to dispense AGT™ glow sand is by using a Powdered Sugar Dispenser or Restaurant-Style Salt Shaker. This application technique works extremely well when AGT™ Sand is being applied in surface sealers and epoxies. Basically, while the first coat of sealer or epoxy is still wet, AGT™ glow sand is broadcasted on. Then, once dry, a second protective coating of sealer/epoxy is applied. This is the preferred approach for use on dark substrates. The reason being, dark colored concrete for instance acts like a Black Hole with light – effectively reducing the glow sand’s ability to perform. By applying the glow over top of the dark substrate, the glow sand has more surface area to glow. We found that in these cases, the Coarse AGT™ worked better than the Fine AGT™ Glow Sand.
Another application method is mixing AGT™ right into the material mix. In GFRC (Glass Fiber Reinforced Concrete) and stucco applications where a compressed air hopper gun is used to apply a Face or Mist Coat, AGT™ Fine or Coarse glow sand is mixed right into the batch. When sprayed over the surface evenly, the glow sand creates a beautiful, uniformly glowing surface.
Both the above methods arrive at similar ‘glowing’ results, it’s up to the artisan to determine which one they want to try first...
To see more glow in the dark sand projects, please visit our Projects page.
