Decorative Glass Panel Multilayer Coating Without Enameling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing decorative glass panels with enamel coatings face manufacturing difficulties due to high-temperature treatments, porosity issues, compatibility problems with other coatings, and limited aesthetic options, making them difficult to cut and prone to chemical reactions, which affect their optical properties and appearance.
Innovation Solution
A decorative glass panel with a multilayer stack comprising a light-absorbing functional layer and transparent dielectric coatings, where the light-absorbing layer is sandwiched between dielectric coatings, with specific thickness and refractive index ranges, allowing for low light transmission and absorption, enabling a pleasing aesthetic appearance without the need for enameling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If an enamel layer is applied to the glass substrate to achieve decorative effect and opacity, then the aesthetic appearance is improved, but the manufacturing complexity increases due to additional enameling and firing steps
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the enamel layer from the structure, replacing it with a multilayer stack of thin films deposited by sputtering. This extraction eliminates the complex enameling and firing processes while maintaining the decorative function through optical interference effects in the thin film layers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the thermal-firing-based enamel application process with a physical vapor deposition process (sputtering). This substitution eliminates the need for high-temperature firing and associated porosity issues, achieving the same decorative effect through controlled thin film deposition at lower temperatures.
2Strength
If high-temperature heat treatment is applied to the coated substrate for mechanical strengthening, then the strength is improved, but the ease of subsequent cutting deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the temperature parameter of the heat treatment process by replacing high-temperature firing with low-temperature sputtering deposition. This parameter change allows the substrate to be strengthened or coated without reaching temperatures that would make subsequent cutting difficult, maintaining manufacturability while achieving mechanical strengthening.
3Shape
If an enamel layer is applied to achieve decorative effect, then the aesthetic appearance is improved, but compatibility issues and chemical reactions with other coatings occur
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses a composite multilayer structure consisting of multiple thin film layers (metallic layers, dielectric layers, gradient layers) deposited by sputtering. This composite structure provides chemical compatibility with the glass substrate and other coatings, eliminating the chemical reaction issues associated with enamel while achieving the desired aesthetic appearance through optical interference.
4Illumination intensity
If enamel is applied and fired to achieve opacity, then the light transmission is reduced, but porosity formation occurs which affects aging resistance
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the thermal firing process with physical vapor deposition (sputtering) to achieve opacity. This substitution eliminates porosity formation because the sputtering process deposits dense, non-porous thin films, thereby maintaining aging resistance while achieving the desired light transmission control.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The multilayer structure achieves very low light transmission and reflection, providing a unique aesthetic effect while being resistant to heat treatment and easy to manufacture, with improved compatibility and reduced porosity, thus overcoming the limitations of enamel-coated panels.
Implementation Method 1
a light-absorbing functional layer... with an extinction coefficient k of at least 1.8... providing a black aesthetic appearance
Implementation Method 2
multilayer stack including at least one light-absorbing functional layer and transparent dielectric coatings... achieving very low light reflection, observed on the attenuation layer side
Implementation Method 3
These decorative panels generally consist of a sheet of vitreous material coated with a decorative enamel layer... coated by sputtering
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to an almost opaque decorative glass panel comprising a substrate made of a vitreous material bearing a multilayer stack including at least one light-absorbing functional layer and transparent dielectric coatings such that the light-absorbing functional layer is enclosed between dielectric coatings. The light-absorbing functional layer has a geometric thickness comprised between 25 and 140 nm, and an extinction coefficient k of at least 1.8. The multilayer stack in addition comprises at least one attenuating layer placed between the substrate and the light-absorbing functional layer, having a thickness comprised between 1 and 50 nm, having a refractive index n higher than 1 and an extinction coefficient k of at least 0.5. Furthermore, a transparent dielectric coating the optical thickness of which is comprised between 30 and 160 nm, and the refractive index n of which is higher than 1.5, is placed adjacent to the attenuating layer on the side opposite the light-absorbing functional layer. The invention provides a decorative panel offering a pleasant aesthetic effect.