Development of new hybrid and digital technologies to complement existing manufacturing processes such as CVD and lithography in late-stage functional

大型玻璃产品在世界各地生产，包括在英国，使用浮法玻璃技术，并运往全球许多部门，如汽车和建筑。这些都是功能化的纳米级层沉积技术，以抗菌，抗反射，或导电表面，然后再将玻璃成型为弯曲形状。目前的浮法玻璃和先进的涂层制造是高效的连续生产。然而，小批量订单和测试的成本非常高，因此，研究重点是产品的后期功能定制，探索纳米级精确直写技术，如喷墨打印，用于嵌入传感器，导电轨道和互连，并实现未来的智能玻璃材料。此外，在曲面上打印的可靠性也带来了各种挑战，例如打印时油墨的空气动力学行为。作为阿萨，应该利用先进制造流体研究小组独特的高帧率图像捕获能力对曲面屏幕上的印刷进行研究，以更好地了解如何提高再现性以用于工业。驱动这个博士项目的首要假设是，需要新的混合和数字技术来补充现有的制造工艺，如CVD和光刻，来塑造未来的材料，提供超精密的分辨率，确保先进的功能存活下来，并提供新的方法，这将有助于推动可持续发展。这项工作也得到了NSG Pilkington研发孵化器的支持，NSG Pilkington是建筑，汽车和先进技术领域玻璃创新和制造的世界领导者。预计将采用各种先进的模拟、配方、流体流动、激光加工和分析技术。

Large glass products are manufactured around the world, including in the UK, using the floatglass technique and are shipped globally to be found in many sectors, such as automotive andarchitectural. These are functionalised with nanoscale layer deposition techniques to createantimicrobial, anti-reflection, or conductive surfaces before the glass is then formed intocurved shapes.Current manufacturing of float glass and advanced coatings is highly efficient withcontinuous production. However, it is extremely expensive for small batch orders and testing.Thus, the research focuses on late-stage functional customisation of products, exploringnanoscale precision direct-writing techniques, such as inkjet printing, needed for theembedding of sensors, conductive tracks and interconnects and enabling the smart glassmaterials of the future. Additionally, the reliability surrounding printing on curved surfacespresents various challenges, such as the aerodynamic behaviour as the ink when printing. Asa result, an investigation into the printing on curved screens should be performed using theunique high frame rate image capture capabilities in the Fluids in Advanced Manufacturingresearch group to develop a better understand how the reproducibility could be improved foruse in industry.The overarching hypothesis driving this PhD project is that new hybrid and digitaltechnologies are needed to complement existing manufacturing processes such as CVD andlithography, to shape materials of the future, to deliver ultra-precision resolution, to ensurethe advanced functions survive, and to deliver the new methods that will help drivesustainability. The work is also supported by the R&D Incubator at NSG Pilkington, worldleaders in innovating and manufacturing of glass across a range of architectural, automotiveand advanced technical sectors. A wide range of advanced simulation, formulation, fluidflow, laser processing and analysis techniques are anticipated to be employed.