Heatable Glazing Panel Layout for Uniform De-Icing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional heatable glazing panels, particularly those with irregular shapes, face issues of non-uniform heat generation leading to overheating and visibility problems due to varying electrical resistance along bus bars, especially in automotive, railway, and aeronautical applications.
Innovation Solution
A laminated electrically heatable glazing panel design with insulated coating zones and strategically placed bus bars to ensure uniform current distribution, using insulating zone boundaries to delimit heating zones and prevent overheating.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If spaced bus bars are used in irregularly shaped glazing panels, then the glazing panel can be heated, but the electrical resistance varies along the bus bars causing non-uniform heat generation and local overheating
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating zones with different electrical conductivity properties. Specifically, it uses a gradient in the thickness of the conductive coating layer along the bus bars, where the coating is thicker at portions farther from the power source and thinner closer to the power source. This local variation in coating thickness compensates for the varying path lengths, equalizing the electrical resistance across different sections of the bus bars and achieving uniform heat generation without overheating in any particular area.
2Temperature
If the conductive coating layer thickness is varied along the bus bars, then uniform electrical resistance and heat generation are achieved, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements parameter changes by systematically varying the thickness parameter of the conductive coating layer along the length of the bus bars. This controlled parameter variation (thickness gradient) is designed to compensate for the varying electrical path lengths in irregularly shaped glazing panels. The gradient approach transforms a complex multi-parameter problem into a single-parameter solution (thickness variation), which can be achieved through controlled coating processes while maintaining manufacturing feasibility.
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
Achieves uniform heating across the glazing panel surface, reducing the risk of overheating and ensuring consistent de-icing or de-misting without hot spots, enhancing visibility and durability.
Implementation Method 1
the electroconductive layer, at a location between the bus bars, generates heat when electric current is passed therethrough via the bus bars
Data Source
AI summary
A laminated electrically heatable glazing panel includes: (i) a first outer and second inner substrates with respectively an internal and an external faces, laminated to one another via at least one polymer inclusive interlayer, (ii) a coating including at least one heatable conductive layer provided between the outer and the inner substrates, the coating divided into at least one heatable coating zone and at least one non-heatable coating zone, the first heatable zone being delimited by at least two zone boundaries which are insulating by a coating deletion area, and (iii) at least a first and second conductive bus bars, each of the spaced first and second bus bars adapted to supply electrical voltage across the at least one electrically heatable coating zone. Only the at least one electrically heatable coating zone is heated when current runs through said first and second bus bars and wherein the conductive path is defined between the busbars.