Coated Glass
Coated glass has been covered with a substance that protects or alters its appearance or performance. Coatings may be applied to any glass material or product, including car window shields, window panes, mirrors, bottles, interior architectural components and parts of DVD and CD players. Different coatings can reduce brittleness, increase strength, increase or decrease the reflectivity, protect against electromagnetic radiation, increase water roll-off and change the color. Glass coatings can be metal, plastic, paint or various chemicals. Before coating glass with a material, it must be compatible with the properties of glass and able to be applied in uniform thickness. The operations must be safe and environmentally friendly, and the process must be able to produce coated glass quickly and efficiently.
The main glass coating processes used today are plasma vapor deposition (PVD), magnetron sputtering and chemical vapor deposition. In PVD, ions formed in gas plasma are accelerated onto the glass, causing the coating material to be ejected and deposited onto the glass. Combining various chemicals and materials together make coatings that selectively absorb and reflect different wavelengths of light. This process forms anti or high reflective glass coatings. Magnetron sputtering is the most common form of glass coating. It uses a vacuum to produce multi-layer coatings that may be applied in any direction. Finally, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) uses a gas mixture and heated glass. A chemical reaction happens on the surface, which causes a coating to form and bond to the glass.