Paul C. Mogensen, Saint-Gobain Glass, Courbevoie, France
Every year, worldwide, hundreds of millions of square meters of float glass is coated with thin films of inorganic materials to add functions to glass used in a wide range of building and automotive applications.
Most of this glass is coated by a physical vapor deposition process called magnetron sputtering, which allows the deposition of high homogeneity, nm scale thin films on large substrates of tens of square meters in an industrial process.
This technology has developed in parallel with an increasing complexity of products and an increasing focus on the energy performance of glazing, with a move from single pane to double and triple glazing and the development of a wide range of high-performance low emissivity and solar control coatings.
This presentation will provide an overview of large area glass coating, focusing on sputtering-based process and technology. The major technical challenges associated with this technology will be presented and the development of the technology reviewed from the point of view of a glass manufacturer.
Some of the approaches where we can use digital tools and data and analysis to enable the rapid and effective optimization of the production of coated glass products will be presented.