Novel Lightweight Laminate Concept with Ultrathin Chemically Strengthened Glass for Automotive Windshields

Abstract

The worldwide trend towards tightening emission legislation and improved fuel consumption continues to drive innovation in the space of automotive vehicle design. Additionally, consumers' demand for higher vehicle performance and better drive dynamics is increasing.OEMs are pursuing various technical paths in parallel to meet these targets. As such, lightweight design is becoming increasingly important, and automotive glazing is an attractive option for vehicle weight reduction. Removing mass above the vehicle belt line not only improves fuel consumption and vehicle performance, but also lowers the center of gravity, which leads to better drive dynamics and stability.Laminates made from two plies of annealed soda-lime glass (ASLG) have been the standard material of choice for automotive windscreen glazing. The windshield mass can be reduced by decreasing the thickness of the glass plies used in the laminate.However, effective glazing strength is decreased when the thickness of conventional window glass is reduced. Concerns about potential glass breakage during window manufacturing processes throughout the supply chain, installation at the vehicle assembly lines and, in particular, during in-vehicle use have defined the lower limits of window glass sheet thickness [1].Gorilla Glass for Automotive (GGfA) offers a solution to these challenges. GGfA is a chemically strengthened alumino-silicate glass. When used in an automotive window laminate, its higher strength compared to soda-lime glass (SLG) enables a decrease in glass ply thickness down to 0.7 mm and below, while current standard window glass sheets range from 1.6-2.5 mm for the majority of applications. A significant weight reduction can be achieved by replacing the relatively thick SLG plies with thin GGfA.In addition to meeting regulatory requirements, trade-offs need to be considered when designing thinner lightweight glazing. Impact resistance, acoustic performance, window stiffness, and optical performance are functions that must be considered. ABSTRACTThis paper proposes a novel concept for lightweight vehicle design, offering a step change in weight reduction for automotive glazing. Reducing window weight can be achieved by decreasing the thickness of the glass plies used to form vehicle windows. However, reducing the thickness of conventional automotive windows also decreases its effective strength; therefore, concerns about glass breakage become a limiting factor for weight reduction.Chemically strengthened ultrathin Corning ® Gorilla ® Glass offers the potential to go beyond existing thickness limitations. Its higher strength compared to standard soda lime window glass allows the design of thin, low weight window constructions. In addition, its unique manufacturing process delivers pristine glass surfaces and precise thickness control for high quality window optics.While this concept can be applied to all vehicle openings, this study focuses on automotive windshield design. By replacing the thick inner ply of a windshield laminate with an ultrathin ...

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