In 1909 Henry Ford offered his Model T with a windshield as an option. Today’s bigger and more spherical windscreens do far more than shield the wind from the car’s occupants while on the move. Matthew Beecham reports.
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For some time, the trend in vehicle glazing has been toward complex shapes to aid vehicle styling. Windscreens have moved from being flat to curved and even spherical with wrap-around corners. On high-end cars, glazing is typically more conservative while on the mid- and small-range models, glazing tends to be more distinctive. “We always welcome technologies that can expand design possibilities,” said a spokesman for Toyota Europe. “However, it is necessary to examine those from several angles, especially technical issues cost, among others, before implementing them in our standard production products.”
Car designers are also adding more and more glass to their cars. Higher and wider windscreens have led to more glass used in vehicle manufacture—by around 15% in the last decade. A mid-range saloon carries around 100lb of glass today, compared to around 85lb in 1990.
Value-added products are becoming increasingly important in the automotive market, delivering greater functionality to a vehicle’s glazing and adding a further growth dimension to automotive glazing sales such as solar control properties, integrated rain sensors and coatings for improved visibility.
Other trends include functional layers such as laminated side glass and dimming glass to control the heat build-up inside the vehicle. Europe is currently leading the way with the adoption of laminated side-glazings for increased vehicle security. The early adopters of laminated side glazing in North America were the luxury SUVs. Glass manufacturers expect to see that adoption trickling across into the mainstream SUV market and then the luxury sedan market. The obvious benefits of laminating the side glass are that it reduces the risk of thieves or vandals breaking in. It also makes it less likely that drivers will be thrown from their vehicles during an accident and it reduces noise inside the car—by around four decibels. The downside is cost; laminated costs around four times more than the tempered glass.
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By GlobalDataAccording to Solutia, a leading supplier of plastic interlayer for laminated glass, the number of vehicles equipped with laminated glass has risen four and a half times in Europe since 2000. Only eight models were available with laminated glazing in 2000, whereas 42 models are offered with the feature today, equivalent to 550,000 units per year. “This market has evolved rapidly,” said Michel van Russelt, Solutia’s sales and marketing manager based in Brussels. “The response from carmakers is far more positive these days. They are now seeing a lot of advantages to the product. On the downside, most carmakers offer laminated side glass as an option only. The interesting point is that we have seen the adoption permeating down the car segments. The latest adoption is the Citroen C4, marking a first in the C segment.”
Bruno Pouillart, Operational Marketing Manager for Saint-Gobain Sekurit International, added: “Most European carmakers are adopting laminated glazing in their general strategy as a key factor to enhance safety and security, improve the acoustic comfort inside the car and reduce UV radiations. A few years ago, this type of equipment was only available on high car segment whereas today we are seeing laminated side glass in the medium range such as Citroen C4 and Volvo S40.”
In North America, adoption of laminated glass is being led by the full-size luxury SUVs, near luxury sedans and emerging luxury crossover vehicles. Unlike Europe, the North American laminated glazing market is being driven by NVH improvements, not safety and security. “In North America, the primary driver for laminated side glass is for a quieter cabin,” said Pete Dishart, Global Product Marketing Manager for PPG. “We are starting to see OEM car advertising talking about quiet space and quiet vehicles. The OEMs are starting to publicize it and use it as a tool to differentiate their vehicles. There is recognition by the OEMs that the consumer perception of quiet and quality go together. The OEMs are therefore thinking about how to make their vehicles as quiet as possible. We are now seeing more and more adoption of laminated glazing being applied to a particular level of vehicle.”
Solutia believes that market for laminated side glass has developed well over the past few years. “We have 18 or 19 vehicles in production today with laminated side glass,” said Jay Pyper, North American automotive market development director for Solutia Automotive. “One of the interesting things is that if you look to the third quarter of this year, North American laminated side glass will be at a volume in excess of 4 million side windows annually. So it has grown from not much at all two years ago to a pretty significant rate of production. We see at least another 5 – 7 major vehicle platform adoptions over the next 12 – 18 months with laminated side glass.” PPG expects laminated side glass to reach 10% fitment rates in North America by 2006. “That’s up from about 5% last year, added Dishart. “I expect that should reach 20% by 2010. Thereafter, we expect to see continued strong growth in North America. Another little talked about aspect of laminated glass is that it does a very good job of blocking UV light. Because of absorption in the plastic interlayer, about 95% of the sun’s UV rays are prevented from entering the vehicle.”
Some companies are also exploring the opportunities for plastic glazing. Although the idea of replacing glass with lighter weight plastic sounds like an obvious innovation, it’s not new. For over thirty years, auto glass experts have explored the potential for plastic as a replacement to glass. Compared to the shape limitations of glass, polycarbonate glazing is highly versatile. It is also lighter by as much as 50% and has high impact resistance. Suppliers claim that a total weight reduction of more than 20kg (50%) is possible when replacing all glass windows (except the windscreen) for a standard minivan.
Exatec, a 50/50 joint venture between Bayer Material Science and GE Advanced Materials Automotive, has launched its first complete polycarbonate vehicle glazing system. “We have been very successful in developing appropriate technologies to address the weatherability, abrasion and functionality issues around PC [polycarbonate] glazing,” said Clemens Kaiser, President and CEO of Exatec. “The fact that it has taken some time shows you that this is not a trivial technology. It takes time to develop the appropriate technology packages for PC glazing. There is also some time-consuming testing that needs to be done for weathering thereby lengthening the time it takes to validate the technology. Our mission is really to drive PC glazing, to introduce new technologies and new options for OEMs and suppliers. We have just started to innovate. I think there is going to be completely new options. The border between the window and a transparent body panel with PC glazing is almost disappeared. And it will be up to the styling people to optimize this. Everyone here is on a steep learning curve. I think we will see many exciting developments in the future.”
BMW believes that with plastic glazing it can accomplish much more with compound surfaces to create an appealing sculptural effect. Likewise the transition between backlights and tail lamps could even be elegantly blended. A spokeswoman for the luxury carmaker told us: “Plastic glazing, polycarbonate, still has some substantial disadvantages limiting its use in practice. It is far less stiff that glass, making it impossible to substitute glass directly by plastic, for example in the roof area. The risk here is the creation of wind noise due to the window being drawn out. Another problem is the far greater thermal expansion coefficient, making it impossible to keep the joints and seams as small as with glass. Polycarbonate is still not as scratchproof as glass, even with the best surface coating. There has, however, been significant progress here in recent years, meaning that use of polycarbonate in the roof area or as a transparent cover might by all means be conceivable. Another problem in using polycarbonate glazing is legislation in the USA, where the use of PC is only allowed on and around the roof. The only exceptions are pick-ups and SUVs, where polycarbonate may also be used for the rear window. However, polycarbonate also offers advantages, such as far greater freedom in design thanks to injection casting and stamping processes. It also has much lower density only about half that of glass. And even though a 50% weight saving is not possible due to the stiffness problems already mentioned, a reduction in weight by 20 – 30 % — depending on the application — should be achievable.”
Interest is also growing in panoramic sunroofs, requiring a combination of shaping competence, tight tolerance control, solar control and glazing system integration capability. The roof systems are fast becoming part of a car’s identity. For example, the most eye-catching design feature on the Citroen C3 Pluriel is the multi-function roof system, which allows the car to be a cabriolet, spider, saloon and pickup. The car industry has discovered that the roof is an area where they can make money. Panoramic sunroofs stretching the length and breadth of a vehicle are becoming increasingly popular on both sides of the Atlantic. In fact, manufacturers report an “unbelievable” amount of interest in large sunroofs. The trend is toward roof systems, mainly of glass, with big openings that can be adjusted even during driving.
US-based Research Frontiers Inc has developed a light control technology, known as SPD (Suspended Particle Device) for controlling light in vehicles and other applications such as aircraft, architectural and marine. A thin film is sandwiched inside the glass that conducts a low voltage of electricity. As a current passes through it, masses of suspended particles join together or disperse, allowing more or less light to pass through. It means that you can simply turn a dial to block out the light, eliminating the need for a sliding shade panel all together. That’s important for the sunroof makers as they move towards offering panoramic roof designs. Research Frontiers is on the brink of releasing its second generation SPD film.
Compared to other transparency control devices – such as electrochromic (EC) or liquid crystal – SPD is cheaper per square foot and reacts faster. It can be totally dark, totally bright or somewhere in between. EC technology can still be tuned but not to the extent that SPD can. Another advantage is that SPD is that it is a film-based technology. That means it can be shipped all over the world. It also means that it can be applied to plastic as well as glass, which can be applied to curved as well as flat surfaces. In the default state, with the power off, the window is dark and would not be able to form the main component of a windscreen. Perhaps the upper band strip but not the entire windscreen. But when a motorist parks their car, SPD would be in the ‘off’ state, an advantage for sunroof applications.
Auto applications include sunroofs, sunvisors, rear-view mirrors, instrument panels and navigation systems. “There are numerous studies that show the increase of accidents when driving into the sun,” said Mike LaPointe, Vice President, Marketing, Research Frontiers. “If you had an SPD sun visor fitted to your car, it could be in the down position and you could see clearly through it but if you turned into the sun, it would darken immediately. I think that this is an application that it would be difficult for EC to penetrate because of the slow transition speed. So I certainly think that you will see SPD visors.”
Another important trend is the gradual shift in emphasis from automotive glass being seen merely as a window, to it becoming one of the key components which define a vehicle’s style. In other words, glazing has become a more prominent feature in vehicle models and a key element in design and styling. “Glass is far more important in the effect that it creates, especially a feeling of openness when seated inside,” added the spokeswoman from BMW. “The panorama roofs of our X3 and X5 demonstrate that. Likewise, a generous glass area can help balance the weight of the exterior vehicle proportions, as vehicles tend to grow taller.”
Already in current and concept cars we are seeing glass becoming part of the body surface, coming right up into the roof in some models. What could we expect to see on tomorrow’s cars? Bruno Pouillart concluded: “Glazed surface evolutionary shapes will become increasingly complex while integrating a combination of several functions, such as anti-heat, heating, hydrophobic coating and so on. The flatness of shapes, reduced dimensions, the glazing should henceforth follow the freedom of creation of the designer. The automotive design as well as the aerodynamic properties owe a lot to these new innovations, many of which Saint-Gobain Sekurit has played an important role. We are thinking the next decade will accelerate the process of function integration answering to user expectations in more comfort and security inside vehicles.”
The pressure for differentiation and the need to develop new models quickly have considerably shortened development time as the industry moves toward the 12-month car (down from today’s best practice of 18-months). This is expected to become the norm by 2010. In other words, the glassmaker must have the flexibility to respond quickly to the OEM requirements. “OEMs are far more demanding and rely on suppliers for a lot more these days,” said John Brandmeier, Global Product Marketing Manager for PPG. “So our capabilities and resources over time need to be able to support that. Customers are always looking for ways in which to save money. They rely on us to bring them cost saving ideas which go into assembling, sequencing and component integration to cut the cost of parts.”
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