Transparent Window Heating Coating with Edge Busbars
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing transparent window panes with heating coatings face challenges in achieving uniform heat distribution and low operating voltage due to high surface resistance, which requires high voltages and can lead to hot spots and reduced light transmission, and are often masked by opaque busbars that obstruct vision.
Innovation Solution
A separate heating element with conducting tracks or wires is applied in a defined edge zone, such as the wiper parking area, to reduce current path length and allow operation with lower voltages, while maintaining the transparency and infrared reflection properties of the coating.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by moving object
If the surface resistance of the heating coating is lowered to reduce operating voltage, then the required service voltage decreases, but the visible light transmission is reduced because the conducting layers would have to be thicker
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the heating system into two separate components: a transparent heating coating with high surface resistance that maintains optical transparency, and a separate low-resistance conducting layer (busbar structure) that provides electrical conduction. This segmentation allows each component to optimize its function without compromising the other - the heating coating remains thin and transparent while the busbar structure handles the voltage reduction requirement.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a busbar structure as an intermediary element between the power source and the heating coating. The busbar acts as a mediator that reduces the voltage requirement by providing a low-resistance parallel conduction path, thereby enabling the high-resistance transparent heating coating to operate at lower voltages without requiring increased thickness.
2Use of energy by moving object
If wire heating is used instead of transparent coating to avoid high voltage requirements, then the operating voltage can be reduced to usual on-board voltage, but the visual appearance is degraded and customer acceptance is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the heating function into two distinct layers: a transparent heating coating that maintains visual appearance and a separate busbar structure that handles electrical conduction. This allows the system to achieve low-voltage operation through the busbar while the transparent coating remains visually imperceptible, avoiding the aesthetic problems of wire heating.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite heating system combining two different materials with complementary properties: a transparent dielectric heating coating that maintains optical clarity and a metallic busbar structure that provides low-resistance electrical conduction. This composite approach achieves both aesthetic requirements and electrical performance requirements.
3Loss of information
If communication windows are provided in the heating coating to improve signal transmission, then data stream transmission is improved, but the heating current flow is degraded and hot spots may form
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses the busbar structure as an intermediary to bypass the communication window interruptions. The busbar provides a continuous low-resistance electrical path that spans across areas where the heating coating is interrupted for communication windows, thereby maintaining uniform current distribution and preventing hot spots while allowing optical signal transmission through the coating interruptions.
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
This configuration enables efficient and rapid heating of edge zones with low voltage, preserving the coating's transparency and infrared reflection, and reducing the risk of hot spots, allowing for safe and unobstructed vision during driving.
Implementation Method 1
an electrically conducting and entirely transparent heating coating (2) incorporated into a composite window pane (1) in a manner known per se
Implementation Method 2
a separate heating element (7) with heating resistors formed by wires and/or conducting tracks printed in a separate or defined edge zone
Implementation Method 3
the coating's transparency and infrared reflection
Data Source
AI summary
A transparent window pane including an electrically heating coating that extends over a large part of the surface of the window pane, or over its field of vision, and which is electrically connected to at least two busbars of low electrical resistance, such that, after an electrical supply voltage has been applied to the busbars, an electrical current flows in a heating field formed by the coating. Further, a heating element includes conducting elements of low electrical resistance, or printed conducting tracks and/or wires, in a zone of the surface not heated by the coating, which preferably lies on the edge of the transparent window pane and on the same face as the coating.