BENEQ has Developed a New ALD Application for the Glass Industry
(Nanowerk News) Beneq, a company providing industrial and R&D equipment and technology for functional coatings, brings ALD technology also to the glass industry. Here, nanocoatings using Beneq’s industrial ALD systems are applied to increase resistance to cracking. Dr Matti Putkonen, senior scientist at Beneq and a professor at Helsinki University of Technology, presented his development work results at the Society of Glass Technology Annual Conference 2009 in Lancaster, UK, on 17 September 2009.
Glass is a very strong material, but microcracks near the edges create weak points, where glass breakage often starts. ALD coating fills these nanoscale cracks and significantly improves the strength of the glass. This increased cracking-resistance is valued especially highly in display, thin-film solar cell, architectural glass, and glass-based sensor applications. In testing, very thin ALD films were deposited on small glass substrates, and larger ones, of up to 1200 x 1200 mm2. Batches of smaller pieces were coated with the Beneq TFS 500 ALD system, while bigger samples were evaluated with the P400A, P800, and TFS 1200 systems. According to the four point bending tests, significant improvement in cracking strength was obtained by means of these ALD coatings.
Beneq Oy, based in Vantaa, Finland, is a supplier of industrial equipment and technology for global markets. Beneq is turning innovations into success by providing nanotechnology enabled functional coating applications for the cleantech and renewable energy fields, especially in glass, photovoltaics, and emerging thin films markets. Beneq’s solutions are based on Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) and proprietary atmospheric nHALO® and nAERO™ aerosol coating technologies.
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