Common

Glasses with all-round coatings

Clouded or frozen glasses are a frequent problem for drivers in the winter. Researchers have now developed a procedure that allows the production of transparent and heated coatings.

In addition to that, those layers are low emissive. Therefore, the glass cools off very slowly, which prevents the condensation of moisture. Thus, the glass remains dry and free of ice.

So far, similar coatings were used that consist of tin oxide. However, those are mechanically and optically imperfect. High temperatures, for example, can cause cracks. That is why the industrial use of tin oxide coatings is limited. In comparison, the newly developed layers are extremely stable. Temperatures up to 900°C or bending processes do not affect them, which allows a widely spreaded use, even in large industrial plants.

The new coating is based on nanocrystalline indium tin oxide (ITO). This core material has an optimal set of optical and electrical properties. It is also much more stable than tin oxide in terms of its mechanical and chemical properties. Indeed, these advantages were already known. However, ITO-coatings could not be produced for a broad industrial application range – until now. The engineers from the Fraunhofer Institute now enabled the production of these layers for a much wider range of applications. For this, the researches applied the "High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering" (HIPIMS) technology. During the process of magnetron sputtering, accelerated inert-gas ions shoot out atoms from an ITO-sheet. Those deposit on the desired substrate in the vaccuum. This method allows a use of 1000 ampere, which leads to an ionisation of the material. This coating, built up from ions, does provide a significant advantage: Depending on pulse and performance conditions during the sputtering, the engineers can adjust the texture and morphology of the coating in the subsequent anneal process, according to the desired properties. After bending the coating, threedimensional tools can be entirely coated.

Source: Fraunhofer Society

Topic: New Materials and Chemistry, Transportation and Mobility

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	Common Glasses with all-round coatings Clouded or frozen glasses are a frequent problem for drivers in the winter. Researchers have now developed a procedure that allows the production of transparent and heated coatings. In addition to that, those layers are low emissive. Therefore, the glass cools off very slowly, which prevents the condensation of moisture. Thus, the glass remains dry and free of ice. So far, similar coatings were used that consist of tin oxide. However, those are mechanically and optically imperfect. High temperatures, for example, can cause cracks. That is why the industrial use of tin oxide coatings is limited. In comparison, the newly developed layers are extremely stable. Temperatures up to 900°C or bending processes do not affect them, which allows a widely spreaded use, even in large industrial plants. The new coating is based on nanocrystalline indium tin oxide (ITO). This core material has an optimal set of optical and electrical properties. It is also much more stable than tin oxide in terms of its mechanical and chemical properties. Indeed, these advantages were already known. However, ITO-coatings could not be produced for a broad industrial application range – until now. The engineers from the Fraunhofer Institute now enabled the production of these layers for a much wider range of applications. For this, the researches applied the "High Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering" (HIPIMS) technology. During the process of magnetron sputtering, accelerated inert-gas ions shoot out atoms from an ITO-sheet. Those deposit on the desired substrate in the vaccuum. This method allows a use of 1000 ampere, which leads to an ionisation of the material. This coating, built up from ions, does provide a significant advantage: Depending on pulse and performance conditions during the sputtering, the engineers can adjust the texture and morphology of the coating in the subsequent anneal process, according to the desired properties. After bending the coating, threedimensional tools can be entirely coated. Source: Fraunhofer Society Topic: New Materials and Chemistry, Transportation and Mobility	Print page Back