Composite materials with specific strength Glass products increasingly take the form of composite materials with coated glass combined with other materials such as polymers (laminated glass for the construction and automotive industries), adhesives (double glazing), mineral salts (fire-resistant glass), enamels, etc. Our vocation is to give the glass new functions, and thus higher added value, by marrying it with other materials. |  |
Automotive glass has to meet many requirements, including thermal insulation, acoustic insulation, break-in resistance, visibility under poor conditions, recyclability, etc. All these aspects of automotive glass are studied and improved, with the development of new composites. The quality requirements posed by the car manufacturers demand perfect mastery of all these developments.
Double glazing is a very familiar product, but it too is in constant development, with improvements being made to the sealing adhesive, design of innovative attachment systems, enhancement of the thermal insulation, organic intermediate layers, etc.
Fire resistant glazing, nowadays used in public buildings (sports halls, stations etc.) guarantees the integrity of the people and parts of the building not directly exposed to fire. The research activities concentrate on the development and implementation of new fire-resistant gels. The challenge is to reconcile the many differing requirements for the product, such as transparency, fire resistance, impact strength, resistance to aging, etc.
The areas of expertise required in this field are:
- Mechanics: experimental and numerical measurement of stresses (mechanical and thermal), heat transfer, drying kinematics, and industrial glassmaking processes.
- Materials: glass/polymer interface reactions, diffusion phenomena, and macroscopic characterisation of polymers.
- Chemistry: formulation of inorganic gels, use of transparent organic polymers, and chemistry of enamels.