Guardian Industries Corporation

Guardian Glass, LLC

Centre Luxembourgeois De Recherches Pour Le Verre Et La Ceramique S.a. (c.r.v.c.)

Agp America S.a.

Guardian Do Brasil Vidros Planos Ltda.

Other

Gaurdian Industries Corp.

Guardian Europe S.a.r.l.

Alexey Krasnov

Willem Den Boer

Jason J Blush

Eric Walter Akkashian

Vijayen S Veerasamy

Scott V Thomsen

Jean-Marc Lemmer

Yiwei Lu

Muhammad Imran

Kevin J O'Connor

Xuequn Hu

Richard Blacker

Rudolph Hugo Petrmichl

Nestor P Murphy

Mario Arturo Mannheim Astete

Jiangping Wang

Jose Nunez-Regueiro

Herbert Lage

Maximo Frati

Jian-gang Weng

Andres Fernando Sarmiento Santos

David M Broadway

Massimo Michetti

Leonard L Boyer, Jr

Gonzalo Rafael Vizcarra Mendoza

Afonso Kreling

Ivan Arturo Cornejo

José Nuñez-Regueiro

Barry B Corden

Raghu K Pendyala

Jorge Ramos

Fabiola Ramos Torres

Juan Baillo Abreu

Philip J Lingle

Brent Boyce

Ksenia A Landa

Leonid M Landa

Uwe Kriltz

Jochen Butz

Timothy J Frey

Greg Gaudet

Cory Richardson

Ed Green

R Glenn Stinson

Lisa Green

Robert Broadwater

Kevin O'CONNOR

The trend towards increasing the glazed area in automobiles has reduced the potential locations for mounting cabin lighting. This is especially true for vehicles having large panoramic glazing. Attempts to utilize integrated light sources within the glazing have had mixed results. Embedded LEDs in the laminate tend to be too bright for night driving. Edge feed illumination with light dispersing elements on the glass to date have only been able to provide low intensity levels. Both approaches tend to reduce visibility and aesthetics in the off state. The current invention provides a means and a method to produce a laminate which provides bright cabin lighting without compromising the function of the glazing to serve as a window, by creating a light dispersing layer that is substantially invisible when in the off state and very bright in the on state.

Illuminated laminate with superior aesthetics and brightness

A multi-layer conductive coating is substantially transparent to visible light, contains at least one conductive layer comprising silver that is sandwiched between at least a pair of dielectric layers, and may be used as an electrode and/or conductive trace in a capacitive touch panel. The multi-layer conductive coating may contain a dielectric layer of or including zirconium oxide (e.g., ZrO) and/or silicon nitride, and may be used in applications such as capacitive touch panels for controlling showers, appliances, vending machines, electronics, electronic devices, and/or the like. The coating may have increased resistivity, and thus reduced conductivity, compared to pure silver layers of certain coatings, in order to allow the silver-based coating to be more suitable for use as touch panel electrode(s).

Transparent conductive coating for capacitive touch panel with silver having increased resistivity

A method and/or system is provided for detecting inclusions (e.g., nickel sulfide based inclusions/defects) in soda-lime-silica based glass, such as float glass. In certain example instances, during and/or after the glass-making process, following the stage in the float process where the glass sheet is formed and floated on a molten material (e.g., tin bath) and cooled or allowed to cool such as via an annealing lehr, light is directed at the resulting glass and reflection of various wavelengths (e.g., red and blue wavelengths) is analyzed to detect inclusions.

Method and system for detecting inclusions in float glass based on wavelength(s) analysis

Certain example embodiments relate to electric, potentially-driven shades usable with insulating glass (IG) units, IG units including such shades, and/or associated methods. In such a unit, a dynamic shade is located between the substrates defining the IG unit, and is movable between retracted and extended positions. The dynamic shade includes on-glass layers including a transparent conductor and an insulator or dielectric film, as well as a shutter. The shutter includes a resilient polymer, a conductor, and optional ink. Holes, invisible to the naked eye, may be formed in the polymer. Those holes may be sized, shaped, and arranged to promote summertime solar energy reflection and wintertime solar energy transmission. The conductor may be transparent or opaque. When the conductor is reflective, overcoat layers may be provided to help reduce internal reflection. The polymer may be capable of surviving high-temperature environments and may be colored in some instances.

Flexible dynamic shade with post-sputtering modified surface, and/or method of making the same

A method and/or system is provided for detecting inclusions (e.g., nickel sulfide based inclusions/defects) in soda-lime-silica based glass, such as float glass. In certain example instances, during and/or after the glass-making process, following the stage in the float process where the glass sheet is formed and floated on a molten material (e.g., tin bath) and cooled or allowed to cool such as via an annealing lehr, visible light from an intense visible light source(s) is directed at the resulting glass and thermal imaging is used to detect inclusions based on a temperature difference between the inclusions and surrounding float glass. In another example embodiment, inclusion detection may be performed without exposure of the glass to light from a light source(s). Inclusions and surrounding glass may cool at different rates and be at different temperatures just prior to and/or after an annealing lehr, and a difference in residual temperature between inclusions and surrounding glass may be detected via thermal imaging and identified to identify inclusion(s).

Method and system for detecting inclusions in float glass

Certain example embodiments relate to speech privacy systems and/or associated methods. The techniques described herein disrupt the intelligibility of the perceived speech by, for example, superimposing onto an original speech signal a masking replica of the original speech signal in which portions of it are smeared by a time delay and/or amplitude adjustment, with the time delays and/or amplitude adjustments oscillating over time. In certain example embodiments, smearing of the original signal may be generated in frequency ranges corresponding to formants, consonant sounds, phonemes, and/or other related or non-related information-carrying building blocks of speech. Additionally, or in the alternative, annoying reverberations particular to a room or area in low frequency ranges may be 'cut out' of the replica signal, without increasing or substantially increasing perceived loudness.

Speech privacy system and/or associated method

A multi-layer conductive coating is substantially transparent to visible light, contains at least one conductive layer comprising silver that is sandwiched between at least a pair of dielectric layers, and may be used as an electrode and/or conductive trace in a capacitive touch panel. The multi-layer conductive coating may contain a dielectric layer(s), and may be used in applications such as capacitive touch panels for controlling showers, appliances, vending machines, electronics, electronic devices, and/or the like. In certain example embodiments, different electrodes of the touch panel may be formed by different silver based layers of the same or different multi-layer coatings. In patterning the electrodes, different laser scribing wavelengths may be used to pattern different respective silver based layers, of the same or different multi-layer coating(s), in certain example embodiments.

Transparent conductive coating for capacitive touch panel and method of making same

Certain example embodiments of this invention relate to techniques for converting sputter-deposited TiNx or TiOxNy layers into TiOx layers via activation with electromagnetic radiation. An intermediate layer including TiOxNy, 0&#x3c;y&#x2264;1 is formed on a substrate. The intermediate layer is exposed to the radiation, which is preferentially absorbed by the intermediate layer in an amount sufficient to heat the intermediate layer to a temperature of 500-650 degrees C. while keeping the substrate at a significantly lower temperature. A flash light operated with a series of millisecond or sub-millisecond length pulses may be used in this regard. The converting removes nitrogen from, and introduces oxygen into, the intermediate layer, causing the layer to expand beyond its initial thickness. At least some of the final layer may have an anatase phase, and it may be photocatalytic. These layers may be used in low-maintenance glass, antireflective, and/or other applications.

Coated article supporting titanium-based coating, and method of making the same

Certain embodiments of this invention relates to a coated article including a low-emissivity (low-E) coating supported by a substrate (e.g., glass substrate) for use in a window, where the low-E coating is exposed to ultraviolet (UV) radiation in order to improve the coating's and thus the coated article's electrical, optical and/or thermal blocking properties. The low-E coating includes at least one infrared (IR) reflecting layer of or including silver which is located on and directly contacting a contact/seed layer of or including metal oxide such as zinc oxide and/or zinc stannate. Exposing the low-E coating to UV radiation, e.g., emitted from a UV lamp(s) and/or UV laser(s), allows for selective heating of the contact/seed layer which in turn transfers the heat energy to the adjacent IR reflecting layer. This heating of the silver inclusive layer improves the silver layer's electrical, optical and/or thermal blocking properties. The UV treated coated article, with its improved properties, may be used in the context of monolithic or insulating glass (IG) window units.

Window with UV-treated low-coating and method of making same

Certain embodiments of this invention relates to a writable window (e.g., IG window unit), where images (e.g., advertisements, logos, designs, pictures and/or words) can be selectively written into the window and are designed to be viewed by humans and/or animals. A substrate (e.g., glass substrate) supports a solar coating such as a low emissivity (low-E) coating which may include at least one infrared (IR) reflecting layer of or including silver that is located on and directly contacting a contact/seed layer of or including a material such as zinc oxide and/or zinc stannate. A radiation source (e.g., laser(s) and/or lamp(s)) may be used to selectively expose certain areas of the coating to radiation (e.g., UV radiation). The exposed area(s) of the coating, after being exposed and heated, have different optical characteristic(s) (e.g., higher visible transmission) than the area(s) of the coating not exposed to the radiation, so that following the laser exposure the exposed area(s) form an image(s) designed to be viewed by humans and/or animals.

Window with selectively writable image(s) and method of making same

Certain example embodiments relate to coated articles with sequentially activated low-E coatings, and/or methods of making the same. In certain example embodiments, one or more infrared reflecting layers is/are activated via a non-equilibrium preconditioning activation that uses photons with specific frequencies/frequency ranges, followed by a more equilibrium thermal activation. The preconditioning activation aids in rearranging the silver atoms to energetically favorable positions, while helping to avoid their unwanted agglomeration. The more equilibrium thermal stage of activation aids in aligning the chemical potentials of the layers of the stack and in further densification of the preconditioned silver layer. Doing so, in turn, helps to reduce the likelihood of stresses building-up in the coating, the formation of point and dimensional defects, other unwanted efficiency-reducing phenomena, and/or the like. Advantageously, emissivity can be lowered to a value lower than that achievable using conventional thermal, flash, and laser scanning, approaches alone.

Coated article with sequentially activated low-E coatings, and/or method of making the same

A multi-layer conductive coating is substantially transparent to visible light, contains at least one conductive layer comprising silver that is sandwiched between at least a pair of dielectric layers, and may be used as an electrode and/or conductive trace in a capacitive touch panel. The multi-layer conductive coating may contain a dielectric layer of or including zirconium oxide (e.g., ZrO) and/or silicon nitride, and may be used in applications such as capacitive touch panels for controlling showers, appliances, vending machines, electronics, electronic devices, and/or the like. The touch panel may further include a functional film(s) which may be one or more of: an index-matching film, an antiglare film, an anti-fingerprint film, and anti-microbial film, a scratch resistant film, and/or an antireflective (AR) film.

Transparent conductive coating for capacitive touch panel with additional functional film(s)

Certain example embodiments relate to capacitive touch panels. First and second glass substrates are substantially parallel and spaced apart from one another. At least one multi-layer transparent conductive coating (TCC) is patterned into electrodes and located between the first and second substrates. The TCC(s) include(s) at least one conductive layer including silver, a dielectric layer including zinc oxide under and directly contacting the conductive layer including silver, and a dielectric layer(s) including tin oxide or silicon nitride over the conductive layer including silver. Processing circuitry electrically connects to the electrodes and measures an aspect of the electrodes' capacitance. A laminate material is located between the first and second glass substrates. The TCC(s), when blanket deposited, may have a visible transmission of at least 88%, a sheet resistances of no more than 10 ohms per square, and a haze of no more than 0.5%. Mutual and self-capacitance designs are disclosed.

Capacitive touch panel with multi-layer transparent conductive film

Growing community of inventors

Canton, MI, United States of America

Alexey Krasnov