Depending on the similarities and differences in control methods and principles, dimmable glass can switch between transparent and opaque states through various means such as electrical control, temperature control, light control, and pressure control. Due to various limitations, the dimmable glass that has been mass-produced on the market is almost all electrically controlled dimmable glass.
The principle of electrically controlled dimming glass is relatively easy to understand: when the power of the electrically controlled product is turned off, the liquid crystal molecules inside the electrically controlled dimming glass will present an irregular scattered state, preventing light from entering and giving the electrically controlled glass an opaque appearance.
Dimmable glass was invented and patented by researchers from Kent State University in the United States in the late 1980s. In China, people are accustomed to referring to dimmable glass by names such as Smart electrically controlled dimmable glass, smart glass, liquid crystal glass, electrically controlled glass, color-changing glass, PDLC glass, smart glass, and magic glass. Intelligent electrically controlled dimming glass began to enter the domestic market in 2003. Due to its high price and the fact that few people knew about it, it developed slowly in China in the following nearly ten years. With the sustained and rapid growth of the national economy, the domestic building materials market has developed rapidly. Due to a significant reduction in cost, smart electrically controlled dimmable glass has gradually been accepted by the construction and design industries and has begun to be widely applied. As costs further decrease and market prices drop, dimmable glass has also started to enter the field of home decoration applications. It is believed that in the near future, This practical high-tech product will enter thousands of households.
Intelligent electrically controlled dimming glass is a laminated glass, with a liquid crystal film (commonly known as dimming film or liquid crystal film) sandwicularly between two layers of glass. The liquid crystal film is covered in the very center by an EN film and formed at high temperature in a one-step oven using an EN method. Due to the consideration of the temperature resistance and pressure resistance of the liquid crystal film in the intelligent electrically controlled dimming glass during the production process, it is not suitable for processing in high-temperature and high-pressure autoclaves.
Detailed Explanation of Several Processing and Production Methods for Dimmable Glass:
One-step vacuum forming method. The structure of its equipment is simple, but there are very few devices that can actually produce dimmable glass. Its processing technology seems simple, but in the actual operation process, the requirement for temperature control accuracy is very high. The defective phenomena that may occur are bubbles, delamination and high haze. Due to the high production cost of dimmable glass, which cannot tolerate a processing scrap rate of more than one percent, non-standard enterprises and those whose technical capabilities cannot achieve precise control generally dare not use this method to produce dimmable glass. There are very few domestic manufacturers that master the essence of "one-step" dimmable glass processing. However, the dimmable glass products made by this method have a long service life and relatively stable performance.
2. Processed with an autoclave. The previous process of autoclave processing is actually similar to one-step processing, and only in the later stage is the autoclave formed under high pressure and high temperature. Autoclave processing can effectively prevent phenomena such as bubbles and delamination, but the disadvantages are also obvious. Since the pressure that the glass formed by autoclave is subjected to is twice that of one-step vacuum forming, and the main interlayer material of dimmable glass, the conductive film, will cause the conductive coating to break or the resistivity to increase due to the large shrinkage rate, which greatly shortens the performance and service life of the dimmable glass product.
The equipment used in the autoclave molding method for dimmable glass must be dedicated and precisely suitable for the characteristics of dimmable glass. Unfortunately, very few domestic manufacturers are dedicated to it; most are mixed with conventional laminated glass. Frequent parameter adjustments of the autoclave not only fail to meet the parameter requirements of dimmable glass but also easily damage the equipment.
3. The water bath method involves immersing the sealed fixture in a 100-degree water tank. It is the most accurate and uniform temperature method for various processing techniques, but the manufacturing difficulty of the fixture is extremely high, and only Japanese manufacturers adopt it.
