Electrochromic Mirror Element Fixturing for Frameless Edge Finishing
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Solution Overview
Problem
The manufacturing process for electro-optic mirror reflective elements in vehicle rearview mirrors faces challenges in achieving accurate and secure fixturing during cutting and edge finishing, particularly in frameless designs where the rear glass substrates do not extend beyond the front glass substrates, leading to handling damage and complexity in tooling and automation.
Innovation Solution
The process involves attaching back plates to the rear glass substrates before forming or cutting the front glass substrates, allowing for enhanced fixturing and secure alignment during cutting and edge finishing, and filling interpane cavities before or after cutting the front glass substrates, which enables precise and automated manufacturing of multiple mirror shapes from a single glass sheet.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Shape
If rear glass substrates do not extend beyond front glass substrates in frameless designs, then the mirror design is more modern and aesthetically pleasing, but handling damage increases and fixturing becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
Back plates are attached to rear glass substrates before the cutting and edge finishing operations are performed on front glass substrates. This preliminary attachment provides fixturing points that enable secure handling during subsequent manufacturing processes, preventing handling damage while maintaining the frameless aesthetic design where rear substrates do not extend beyond front substrates.
2Manufacturing precision
If back plates are attached before cutting front glass substrates, then fixturing accuracy is improved, but the manufacturing process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
Back plates serve multiple functions: they provide structural support for the rear glass substrates, act as fixturing points during cutting and edge finishing operations, and enable accurate alignment of multiple mirror shapes from a single glass sheet. By consolidating these functions into a single component attached early in the process, the solution improves manufacturing precision without proportionally increasing complexity.
3Productivity
If multiple mirror shapes are manufactured from a single glass sheet, then productivity increases, but alignment accuracy becomes more difficult to maintain
Solution Approach 1:
Back plates act as intermediary components that facilitate the manufacturing of multiple mirror shapes from a single glass sheet. By attaching back plates to rear substrates before cutting, they provide stable fixturing points and reference surfaces that enable precise alignment and positioning during the cutting and edge finishing processes, thereby maintaining alignment accuracy while enabling high-productivity manufacturing of multiple mirrors simultaneously.
Data Source
AI summary
A plurality of vehicular electrochromic mirror reflective elements includes first and second vehicular electrochromic mirror reflective elements, each having a respective planar rear glass shaped substrate and a respective planar front glass substrate. The planar front glass shaped substrates are cut out from a planar glass sheet. Each planar rear glass shaped substrate is joined with a respective planar front glass substrate portion of the planar glass sheet via a respective perimeter seal. With the planar rear glass shaped substrate joined with the planar front glass shaped substrate, the circumferential perimeter cut edge of the planar front glass shaped substrate and the circumferential perimeter cut edge of the planar rear glass shaped substrate are processed to provide a circumferential rounded perimeter edge of the respective vehicular electrochromic mirror reflective element having a radius of curvature of at least 2.5 mm.