Method of making a curved vehicle windshield
AssigneeGuardian Industries Corp.
InventorVijayen S. Veerasamy
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method of making a vehicle windshield. First and second flat glass sheets are bent together into a shape desired for the windshield. The bent sheets are separated, and an interlayer (e.g., PVB) positioned therebetween. After the sheets have been heat laminated to one another via the interlayer, the convex tin side of the outer sheet is ion beam milled to shave off a portion thereof. Then, a diamond-like carbon (DLC) inclusive coating is deposited using an ion beam(s) on the milled convex shaped surface of the laminate to produce a windshield. In certain optional embodiments, the windshield may be hydrophobic in nature.
Claims18
A method of making a curved laminated vehicle windshield, the method comprising:
- providing first and second glass sheets;
- placing the first and second glass sheets in juxtaposed relation with one another and heat bending the sheets together;
- positioning an interlayer between the two heat bent glass sheets;
- heating the glass sheets with interlayer therebetween in order to laminate the first and second glass sheets to one another via at least the interlayer, thereby forming a curved laminate including a convex surface and a concave surface;
- ion beam milling the convex surface of the curved laminate in order to shave off or remove a portion of the first glass sheet thereby forming a milled convex glass surface of the curved laminate;
- ion beam depositing a diamond-like carbon (DLC) inclusive coating directly on the milled convex glass surface of the curved laminate using a non-focused ion beam so that the DLC inclusive coating contacts the glass of the milled convex glass surface, thereby forming a vehicle windshield having an outer or convex surface including a DLC inclusive coating thereon;
- and
- wherein said ion beam depositing is carried out so that a temperature of the curved laminate does not rise above 70 degrees C. during coating depositing on the milled convex glass surface.
A method of making a curved laminated vehicle windshield, the method comprising:
- providing first and second glass sheets;
- heat bending the first and second sheets to form respective bent glass sheets;
- heating the bent glass sheets with an interlayer therebetween in order to laminate the first and second bent glass sheets to one another via at least the interlayer, thereby forming a curved laminate including an outwardly curved surface;
- and
- ion beam depositing a diamond-like carbon (DLC) inclusive coating directly on the outwardly curved glass surface of the curved laminate thereby forming a vehicle windshield.
A method of making a curved laminated vehicle windshield, the method comprising:
- providing first and second glass sheets;
- heat bending the first and second sheets to form respective bent glass sheets;
- heating the bent glass sheets with an interlayer comprising PVB therebetween in order to laminate the first and second bent glass sheets to one another via at least the interlayer, thereby forming a curved laminate including an outwardly curved surface, and allowing cooling of the curved laminate;
- and
- after said cooling, ion beam depositing a diamond-like carbon (DLC) inclusive coating on the outwardly curved surface of the curved laminate thereby forming a vehicle windshield, and wherein a temperature of the curved laminate does not rise above 70 degrees C. from the time that said cooling is complete up until the ion beam depositing is complete.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.