Low Emissivity Window Films: Design, Production and Marketing Challenges
(Room Room 104-A)
29 Apr 19
10:40 AM
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11:20 AM
Tracks:
WebTech Roll-to-Roll Coatings for High-End Applications
Low emissivity (low-E) coatings, developed in active collaboration between academia, commercial entities and government sponsored programs have been a huge success; now accounting for savings of 1.5 Quads of energy annually and are in 80% of the residential windows and 50% of the commercial windows, according to US Department of Energy. These coatings comprising multi-layer dielectric-metal-dielectric optical cavities reflect the near infrared as well as mid infrared radiation, thereby reducing the solar heat gain and improving insulation. Window films are a cost-effective means of addressing heat gain, heat loss, glare, and fading without having to replace the windows. While the low-E coatings on glass that are used to fabricate windows have found tremendous commercial success, the attempts to design them for applications in applied window films have been very challenging. Since these coatings use silver or silver alloys as the material responsible for low-E function, effective means of protecting the layers from environmental degradation as well as mechanical damage are among the major challenges. Window film aesthetics are primarily a result of optical stack design but strongly affected by process factors such as thickness control. This talk will discuss design, manufacturing and marketing aspects of low emissivity window films.