Guide
DGU configurations, explained
A DGU configuration names the three layers of an insulated unit: outer pane, cavity fill and inner pane. ARG builds units from Saint-Gobain clear and coated glass in three standard configurations, and quotes any build-up on request.
How do you read a configuration?
An insulated glass unit is two panes around a sealed cavity, so a configuration is written as three words: the outer pane, the fill and the inner pane. “Clear + air gap + clear” means two clear panes with an air-filled cavity between them. Change any one word and you have named a different unit. That is the whole notation, and it is how ARG quotes.
The three standard ARG configurations
Clear + air gap + clear is the baseline unit and the usual starting point for a quote. Two clear panes, an air cavity and the insulation benefit of a sealed gap over any single pane.
Clear + argon + clear keeps the same two panes and changes only the fill: argon rather than air in the cavity. Everything visible is identical; what changes is thermal performance, covered below.
Coater + argon + clear brings a coated Saint-Gobain pane, a coater, into the unit alongside an argon fill. This is the configuration for elevations where solar heat gain is the problem being solved, and the coated pane is the layer the one month conversion rule applies to.
Other build-ups exist, and ARG quotes them per drawing. These three are the standard shapes a first conversation starts from.
What does argon actually change?
The cavity fill is an insulation decision. Saint-Gobain’s own performance data for its Cool-Lite SKN reference unit, the same 6 mm coated pane and 6 mm clear pane around a 16 mm cavity, lists a U-value of 1.3 W/m²K with air and 1.0 W/m²K with a 90% argon fill. Lower is better insulated: the same unit transmits about a quarter less heat when the cavity is argon-filled.
Those are the maker’s figures for the maker’s named reference pairing, quoted here so the air versus argon decision has a real number behind it. They are not measurements of a specific ARG unit. A real build-up’s performance depends on every layer in it, which is what the glass configurator works out per order.
What is a coater?
A coater is a pane that carries a factory-applied Saint-Gobain coating. The ranges ARG works with are the SKN series and the PlanitHerm series, hard-coated glasses that can only be used inside a DGU. Saint-Gobain also has a code name for its plain clear float glass: PlaniClear.
The coating’s position inside the unit is specified, not left to chance. Saint-Gobain’s SKN 176 II sheet places the coating on face 2, the surface of the outer pane that looks into the cavity, where the sealed unit protects it for the life of the window.
Which configuration should I ask for?
Start from the room behind the glass. If the elevation rarely sees direct sun and the budget is tight, the baseline clear unit does the job. If heating and cooling costs matter, the argon fill is the cheapest upgrade in the list. If the elevation spends its afternoons in direct sun, the coater configuration is the one designed for exactly that.
For a real answer with numbers, use the glass configurator or send the drawing and orientation on WhatsApp, and ARG will quote the build-up rather than the category.