Beneq, a company providing
industrial and R+D equipment and technology for functional coatings, brings
ALD technology also to the glass industry. Here, nanocoatings using Beneq's
industrial ALD systems are applied to increase resistance to cracking. Dr Matti
Putkonen, senior scientist at Beneq and a professor at Helsinki University of
Technology, presented his development work results at the Society of Glass Technology
Annual Conference 2009 in Lancaster, UK, on 17 September 2009.
Glass is a very strong material, but microcracks near the edges create weak
points, where glass breakage often starts. ALD coating fills these nanoscale
cracks and significantly improves the strength of the glass. This increased
cracking-resistance is valued especially highly in display, thin-film solar
cell, architectural glass, and glass-based sensor applications. In testing,
very thin ALD films were deposited on small glass substrates, and larger ones,
of up to 1200 x 1200 mm2. Batches of smaller pieces were coated with the Beneq
TFS 500 ALD system, while bigger samples were evaluated with the P400A, P800,
and TFS 1200 systems. According to the four point bending tests, significant
improvement in cracking strength was obtained by means of these ALD coatings.
Beneq Oy, based in Vantaa, Finland, is a supplier of industrial equipment and
technology for global markets. Beneq is turning innovations into success by
providing nanotechnology enabled functional coating applications for the cleantech
and renewable energy fields, especially in glass, photovoltaics, and emerging
thin films markets. Beneq’s solutions are based on Atomic Layer Deposition
(ALD) and proprietary atmospheric nHALO® and nAEROTM aerosol coating technologies.