Technology development for the efficient production of glass exterior and interior components for automotive futures

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Thin glass components can be used in a wide variety of applications and are in particularly employed in the automotive, consumer electronics, and medical technology sectors. Consequently, the market for ultra-thin glass is predicted to grow from $9.73 billion in 2017 to $16.99 billion by 2022.However, manufacturers are confronted with the industry's increasing demands for complex shapes, high dimensional accuracy, large production volumes, and low unit costs. A new replicative process known as non-isothermal glass molding (NGM) has become a technology for the cost-efficient production of bulk glass components with high geometric complexity and precision. When transferring this technology to thin glass forming, the greatest challenge is currently to ensure process stability. Due to thermal gradients, residual stresses occur which can lead to component distortion as well as cracks and surface defects. Conventional trial-and-error approaches are hardly suitable to avoid these defects. Instead, numerical simulation tools represent a promising alternative.The main goal of the project is to develop a non-isothermal molding technology for the mass production of thin glass components. Based on the existing knowledge from fundamental research, an existing numerical model will be extended. This includes three main innovations: First, a visco-plastic constitutive law for glass will be developed for the entire range of the process relevant temperatures. Second, an innovative model for predicting the contact heat transfer between tool and glass is enhanced and integrated. Finally, these models are characterized experimentally over the entire temperature range. It is expected that a simulation tool for thin glass forming with unprecedented accuracy will be developed. The knowledge gained from the simulation will be used to optimize the developed molding technology. Finally, the latter as well as the simulation tool will be evaluated by the industrial partners in operational environments.