The disclosure herein generally relates to a laminated glass.
In recent years, projections of information on front windshield of cars have become popular (Head Up Display, commonly called “HUD”). A glass, on which information is projected (laminated glass) has a shape of a wedge so that a passenger inside the vehicle sees a projected image without distortion, and images reflected at a front surface and a back surface of the laminated glass are overlaid. The laminated glass includes a plurality of glass plates and intermediate films for bonding the plurality of glass plates. A method of forming the laminated glass in a wedged shape includes a method of grinding a glass plate to give a tapered shape (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H02-279437), a method of forming a glass plate in a tapered shape upon forming with a float glass, or the like (U.S. Pat. No. 7,122,242 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,694).
However, none of Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. H02-279437, U.S. Pat. No. 7,122,242, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,575,694 specifically disclose a laminated glass using a glass plate having a tapered shape, and there is a problem of visibility.
It is a general object of at least one embodiment of the present invention to provide a laminated glass that substantially obviates one or more problems caused by the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
In order to solve the above problem, according to an aspect of the present invention, a laminated glass including a first glass plate, which varies in a thickness from one end to another end that is opposite the one end, and in which a line is formed; a second glass plate in which a line is formed; and an intermediate film located between the first glass plate and the second glass plate, and configured to bond the first glass plate and the second glass plate so that the line of the first glass plate and the line of the second glass plate are mutually orthogonal, in a view of a plate thickness direction, is provided.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a laminated glass with an enhanced visibility can be provided.
Other objects and further features of embodiments will become apparent from the following detailed description when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
In the following, the laminated glass according to the present invention will be described in detail.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
The first glass plate 11 and the second glass plate 12 may be float glass plates, respectively.
In the float method, a molten glass 15 is continuously supplied on a molten metal 14, such as molten tin, and the supplied molten glass 15 is caused to flow on the molten metal 14, and thereby a glass is formed as a band-shaped plate. The molten glass 15 as a band-shaped plate is also referred to as a glass ribbon 15.
In order to prevent the glass ribbon 15 from contracting in the width direction, both end portions in the width direction of the glass ribbon 15 are held by a pair or rollers 16. A plurality of pairs of rollers 16 are arranged in the flow direction at regular intervals. When the plurality of pairs of rollers 16 rotate, the glass ribbon 15 moves to a downstream side.
The glass ribbon 15 is cooled as the glass ribbon 15 moves to the downstream side, cooled and solidified, pulled up from the molten metal 14, annealed and cut. According to the above-described procedures, a float glass plate is obtained. A surface of the float glass plate that had contacted with the molten metal 14 is referred to as a bottom surface. An opposite surface of the float glass plate to the bottom surface is referred to as a top surface. The bottom surface and the top surface need not be polished.
In
The thickness of the glass ribbon 15 varies in the width direction. Lines are formed on the glass ribbon 15 along the flow direction. Therefore, the thickness of the first glass plate 11 varies in a direction orthogonal to the lines 113.
When a shaping condition is controlled, a glass ribbon, in which the thickness increases from the both end portions in the width direction to the central portion in the width direction, or a glass ribbon in which the thickness increases from the one end portion in the width direction to the other end portion in the width direction, can be prepared. Naturally, a glass ribbon in which the thickness is uniform can also be prepared. The thickness of the glass ribbon can be controlled by a circumferential velocity of the rollers 16 or the like, in addition to a tensile force by the rollers 16.
The intermediate film 13 is located between the first glass plate 11 and the second glass plate 12, as illustrated in
Among the above-described materials, a plasticized polyvinyl acetal-based resin is preferably used, because of its excellent balance of performances, such as transparency, weather resistance, strength, an adhesive property, penetration resistance, impact energy absorbability, humidity resistance, a heat shielding property, and a sound insulating property. These thermoplastic resins can be used independently, or two or more kinds of resins may be used jointly. In the above-described plasticized polyvinyl acetal-based resin, the term “plasticized” means that the resin is plasticized by adding a plasticizing agent. The same applies to the other plasticized agents.
The above-described polyvinyl acetal resin includes a polyvinyl formal resin, which is obtained by reaction of polyvinyl alcohol (in the following, will be referred to as “PVA” as necessary) and formaldehyde, a narrowly defined polyvinyl acetal resin, which is obtained by reaction of PVA and acetaldehyde, a polyvinyl butyral resin (in the following, will be referred to as “PVB”), which is obtained by reaction of PVA and n-butyl aldehyde, or the like. Especially, PVB is preferably used, because of its excellent balance of performances, such as transparency, weather resistance, strength, an adhesive property, penetration resistance, impact energy absorbability, humidity resistance, a heat shielding property, and a sound insulating property. These polyvinyl acetal-based resins can be used independently, or two or more kinds of resins may be used jointly.
As illustrated in
A projector, such as an HUD, that projects information on the laminated glass 10 as the front windshield of the vehicle, is usually arranged in a lower part of a vehicle interior. A projection image projected from the projector is reflected at a rear surface and at a front surface of the laminated glass 10. The thickness of the laminated glass 10 is required to vary parallel to the projection direction (i.e. vertical direction), viewed in the front-back direction of the car, so that both the reflection images are not seen double. Because the thickness of the first glass plate 11 varies in a direction orthogonal to the lines 113, the lines 113 of the first glass plate 11 align in a direction orthogonal to the projection direction (i.e. horizontal direction), viewed in the front-back direction of the car. Therefore, the first glass plate 11 is used in a direction for which the visibility would otherwise degrade.
In order to improve the visibility, the intermediate film 13 bonds the first glass plate 11 and the second glass plate 12, as illustrated in
When a top surface of the first glass plate 11 and a top surface of the second glass plate 12 are contact surfaces of the intermediate film 13, respectively, a small undulation that occurs upon forming can be made difficult to be seen. Therefore, the perspective distortion of the laminated glass 10 is reduced, and the visibility can be enhanced.
When the top surface of the first glass plate 11 and a bottom surface of the second glass plate 12 are contact surfaces of the intermediate film 13, respectively, an influence from a difference between adhesion forces of the top surface and the bottom surface can be reduced, and an optimum adhesion performance as the laminated glass 10 can be obtained.
When a bottom surface of the first glass plate 11 and the top surface of the second glass plate 12 are contact surfaces of the intermediate film 13, respectively, an influence from a difference between adhesion forces of the top surface and the bottom surface can be reduced, and an optimum adhesion performance as the laminated glass 10 can be obtained.
When the bottom surface of the first glass plate 11 and the bottom surface of the second glass plate 12 are contact surfaces of the intermediate film 13, respectively, the top surface can be set to be an exposure surface of the laminated glass 10. On the exposure surface, a function film may be provided. Because the top surface has excellent adhesiveness with the function film, durability of the function film can be improved. The function film may be provided with at least one function of a water repellent function, an antifogging function, an infrared cut function, and an ultraviolet cut function.
The thickness of the second glass plate 12A varies from one end 121A to another end 122A that is opposite the one end 121A. The second glass plate 12A is manufactured in the same way as the first glass plate 11, and includes lines (not shown). The thickness of the second glass plate 12A varies in a direction orthogonal to the lines of the second glass plate 12A.
The intermediate film 13 bonds the first glass plate 11 and the second glass plate 12A so that the lines 113 of the first glass plate 11 are orthogonal to the lines of the second glass plate 12A, viewed in the plate thickness direction. Therefore, thicknesses of the second glass plate 12A and the first glass plate 11 vary along directions orthogonal to each other. Therefore, when information is projected onto the laminated glass 10 with respect to two directions orthogonal to each other, viewed in the front-back direction of the car, for the information with respect to both directions images reflected at a rear surface and at a front surface of the laminated glass 10A can be overlaid.
The thickness of the intermediate film 13B varies from one end 131B to another end 132B that is opposite the one end 131B. In
In
The laminated glass 10B according to the second variation may include, instead of the second glass plate 12 having the constant thickness, as illustrated in
The intermediate film 13C is configured by three layers, i.e. includes a first resin layer 135C, a second resin layer 136C, and a third resin layer 137C. The second resin layer 136C is located between the first resin layer 135C and the third resin layer 137C, and has a smaller hardness than both the first resin layer 135C and the third resin layer 137C. According to the above-described configuration, the sound insulating properties can be improved. The first resin layer 135C and the third resin layer 137C may have the same hardness, or different hardness.
The intermediate film 13C, though configured by three layers in
The thickness of the intermediate film 13C is constant in
The laminated glass 10C according to the third variation may include, instead of the second glass plate 12 having the constant thickness, as illustrated in
When the laminated glass 10D is used for a front window of a car, the laminated glass 10D is usually formed in a shape of an approximate trapezoid, viewed in the front-back direction of the car, as illustrated in
The first glass plate or the second glass plate configuring the laminated glass 10D is bent and formed after forming by the float method before bonding by the intermediate film. The bending and forming are performed for the glass softened by heating. The heating temperature for the glass upon bending and forming is about 550-700° C.
A maximum depth of curvature D of the laminated glass 10D is a distance from a line L that connects the midpoints of the opposite sides of the concave face 101D of the laminated glass 10D, among the longer of the two pairs of opposite sides, to the deepest portion of the concave face 101D, in a direction orthogonal to the line L.
When the maximum depth of curvature D of the laminated glass 10D is 10 mm or more, lines can be extended sufficiently by the bending and forming, and visibility can be sufficiently improved. The maximum depth of curvature D of the laminated glass 10D is preferably 12 mm or more, and more preferably 15 mm or more.
In the following, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples.
By the float method, a first glass plate, in which a thickness varied from one end to another end that is opposite the one end, and a second glass plate with a constant thickness were prepared, and pieces with a size of 30 cm square were cut out, respectively. The thickness of the first glass plate was 1.9 mm at the thinnest portion and 2.1 mm at the thickest portion. The thickness of the second glass plate was 2.0 mm. A top surface or a bottom surface of the first glass plate, and a top surface or a bottom surface of the second glass plate were flat, respectively.
The first glass plate and the second glass plate were arranged so that the strips of the first glass plate were orthogonal to the lines of the second glass plate, viewed in the plate thickness direction. A single-layered intermediate film of PVB with a constant thickness of 0.76 mm (by Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd., S-LEC Clear Film) was held between a top surface of the first glass plate and a top surface of the second glass plate. A laminated body in this state was put into a vacuum bag, and the vacuum bag was deaerated so that a pressure gauge indicated 100 kPa or less. Afterwards, the laminated body was heated at 120° C. to perform a preliminary press-bonding. Furthermore, heating and pressurizing were performed at a temperature of 135° C., at a pressure of 1.3 MPa, for 60 minutes in an autoclave. Finally, a laminated glass is obtained by cooling. A thickness of the laminated glass is 4.6 mm at the thinnest portion, and 4.8 mm at the thickest portion.
A laminated glass was prepared with the same material and condition as the example 1, other than that a single-layered intermediate film of PVB was held between the top surface of the first glass plate and a bottom surface of the second glass plate.
A laminated glass was prepared with the same material and condition as the example 1, other than that a three-layered intermediate film of PVB (by Sekisui Chemical Co., Ltd., S-LEC Sound Acoustic Film) was used.
A laminated glass was prepared with the same material and condition as the example 1, other than that the first glass plate and the second glass plate were arranged so that lines of the first glass plate and lines of the second glass plate were parallel to each other.
A laminated glass was prepared with the same material and condition as the comparative example 1, other than that a three-layered intermediate film of PVB was used.
(State Upon Evaluation of Laminated Glass)
Next, representatively, a state upon evaluation of the laminated glass according to the example 2 will be described with reference to
The reference state of the laminated glass 10 was, as illustrated by the solid line in
When the state of the laminated glass 10 was in the reference state, as illustrated by the solid line in
When the state of the laminated glass 10 was in the reference state, as illustrated by the solid line in
The laminated glass 10 was rotated in the clockwise direction, as illustrated in
By rotating the laminated glass 10 in the clockwise direction around the axis of rotation 17, as illustrated in
The laminated glass 10 was rotated in an counterclockwise direction around a revolving shaft 18, as illustrated in
(Point Light Evaluation)
A point light evaluation is to project light from a hydrogen lamp, which is the light source 30 illustrated in
As is clear from TABLE 1, variations in thickness of shadow in the direction of lines of the first glass plate of the projected images for the laminated glasses in the examples 1-3 are smaller than those of the projected images for the laminated glasses in the comparative examples 1-2. That is, visibility can be improved.
(Perspective Distortion Evaluation)
A perspective distortion evaluation is to measure a perspective distortion (minute) based on a perspective distortion test described in JIS R 3212 (Test method of safety glazing materials for road vehicles).
First, the perspective distortion evaluation was performed for the states with the inclination angle α of 20°, 30°, and 40°. The turning angle β was set to 0°. Results of evaluation for the laminated glass in the examples 1-2 and the comparative example 1 are listed in TABLE 2.
As is clear from TABLE 2, it is confirmed that when the inclination angle α is 200, the laminated glass in the examples 1-2 is different from the laminated glass in the comparative example 1, and has a configuration in which a perspective distortion does not readily occur.
Next, the perspective distortion evaluation was performed for the states with the inclination angle α of 20°, and the turning angle β of 18°. Results of evaluation for the laminated glass in the examples 2-3 and the comparative examples 1-2 are listed in TABLE 3.
As is clear from TABLE 3, it is confirmed that when the state of the laminated glass is changed from an inclination state to a turning state to increase an optical path length in the glass, the effect of the present invention is expressed further remarkably.
Therefore, as described above, it was found that according to the present invention a laminated glass in which visibility is improved can be provided.
As described above, the preferred embodiments and the like for the laminated glass have been described in detail. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described specific embodiments, but various variations and modifications may be made without deviating from the scope of the present invention, described in claims.
The laminated glass disclosed in the present application can be preferably applied to an apparatus for projecting an image, used for vehicles, such as cars or trains, aircraft, such as airplanes or helicopters, general-use windows, such as houses or buildings, stationary type screens, mobile screens, or the like.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2015-012162 | Jan 2015 | JP | national |
2016-005584 | Jan 2016 | JP | national |
The present application is a continuation application filed under 35 U.S.C. 111(a) claiming benefit under 35 U.S.C. 120 and 365(c) of PCT International Application No. PCT/JP2016/051318 filed on Jan. 18, 2016 and designating the U.S., which claims priority of Japanese Patent Applications No. 2015-012162 filed on Jan. 26, 2015 and No. 2016-005584 filed on Jan. 14, 2016. The entire contents of the foregoing applications are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/JP2016/051318 | Jan 2016 | US |
Child | 15648487 | US |