Architecture Glass

Glass is one of the most popular material for buildings all over the world. It provides high comfort and ambience for daily living and the working environment. Combined with sophisticated coating technologies, glass has very useful characteristics: Heat transfer is reduced for highest energy efficiency in housing and offices. This helps to protect the environment and to save costs. High transmittance creates bright, light-filled rooms. For a neutral appearance or customized design, colors can also be adjusted in the glass pane.

The complexity of these coatings requires a steady and reliable control of the production process. Parameters like reflectance and transmission spectra, color values and layer thickness have to be accurately monitored over long periods with a high measurement frequency. This requires reliable in-line monitoring systems and robustness in harsh environments, e.g. in float lines or within the coater under vacuum conditions.

ThinProcess® process control system is the fast and efficient stand-alone solution for surface coating property metrology in-line. It measures the thin film coating thickness, determines the region of the reflection upper limits and calculates colormetric values. Easily and individually adjustable, ThinProcess® fits into existing or newly designed coating processes.

• In-line process control
  
• No need for additional protective housings
  
• Easy to install and integrate
  
• Configurable interface
  
• Recipe driven operation for easy product changes
  
• Fast and accurate analysis at full processing speed
  
• Data archiving
  
• Large spot size for a fast and accurate in-line process control of micro-structured surfaces
  
• Optical emission spectroscopy stabilizes plasma in vacuum chamber

The ZEISS ThinProcess® family is a solution for in-line quality measurements of a wide range of thin film coatings along the entire industrial production line of architecture glass. Each system is individually designed to measure coatings on glass panes inside the vacuum coater. After all coating steps are completed in the coater, the transmittance and reflectance is measured with a traversed system outside the coater over the full width of the glass panes – for quality control to ensure a flawless result.

• High measurement speed
  
• Coated areas > 5 m²
  
• Accuracy matching of different positions, also after years of operating
  
• Easy adaption to changing requirements
  
• Real-time data access
  
• Easy-to-read graphical modes
  
• Automation layer integration via OPC, ProfiBus, Digital I/O and SQL database
  
• Modular design to add measurement positions or extend the spectral
  
• Self-calibration, self-triggering and synchronization
  
• Optic placement inside or outside the vacuum chamber
  
• Setup and system training by ZEISS

ThinProcess® in-line is a monitoring system for transparent coating processes in a vacuum-sealed environment. The system enables in-line measurements by using fixed probe heads. This makes it possible to calibrate the system in the gaps between the disks passing through underneath. Measurement results include spectral reflection, transmission, as well as the calculation of color values and coating thicknesses.

• Measurement of spectral transmission (380 nm-1,100 nm; 1,700 nm on request)
  
• Measurement of spectral reflectivity (380 nm-1,100 nm; 1,700 nm on request)
  
• Optional Eddy current sensors In-line Traverse

It is an absolute necessity to proof results and validate the quality of final products after the coating process. ThinProcess® Q NG allows several automatic scan modes for mapping pre-selected positions on the final product. The User can easily determine the measurement parameters without additional expert knowledge. The system can be either delivered as a complete traverse configuration or as a single point measurement head.

• Measurement of spectral transmission (365 nm-1,100 nm; 1,700 nm on request)
  
• Measurement of spectral reflectivity (365 nm-1,100 nm; 1,700 nm on request)
  
• Optional eddy current sensors
  
• Optional OFR155 measurement head for optical appearance, observation an angle of 55°