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

薄玻璃组件可用于各种各样的应用，特别是在汽车、消费电子和医疗技术领域。因此，超薄玻璃市场预计将从2017年的97.3亿美元增长到2022年的169.9亿美元。然而，制造商面临着行业对复杂形状、高尺寸精度、大产量和低单位成本的日益增长的需求。一种被称为非等温玻璃模压（NGM）的新型复制工艺已经成为一种具有高几何复杂性和精度的高成本效益生产大块玻璃部件的技术。当将该技术应用于薄玻璃成型时，目前最大的挑战是确保工艺稳定性。由于热梯度的存在，会产生残余应力，从而导致部件变形以及裂纹和表面缺陷。传统的试错法很难避免这些缺陷。相反，数值模拟工具代表了一个很有前途的选择。该项目的主要目标是开发一种非等温成型技术，用于大规模生产薄玻璃组件。基于已有的基础研究知识，对已有的数值模型进行扩展。这包括三个主要创新：首先，将为整个工艺相关温度范围内的玻璃开发粘塑性本构律。其次，改进并集成了刀具与玻璃接触传热的预测模型。最后，在整个温度范围内对这些模型进行了实验表征。人们期望开发出一种具有前所未有精度的薄玻璃成形模拟工具。从仿真中获得的知识将用于优化开发的成型技术。最后，后者以及仿真工具将由工业合作伙伴在操作环境中进行评估。

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.