Glass, Optics & Coatings

From windshields to mirrors to electronic screens, glass analysis in the automotive and transportation industry is crucial to ensure safety and security. With so many different types of optical properties that need to be analyzed, it’s important to have flexible, reliable technology for the most accurate results. To analyze a variety of sample types, forms, and sizes, you must use the appropriate accessory that tests to QA/QC standards. Our solutions allow for optimized development and production as well as the ability to troubleshoot at any stage. To determine color, light transmission, absorbance, thermal, and solar properties, glass is tested against ISO13837, CIE, EN410, EN673 standards.

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With the ever-growing need to source efficient renewable energy, it’s more important than ever to ensure products like solar glass are properly analyzed. Common applications for analyzing its properties include optical components, materials, and color measurements on specular substrates. Samples are typically tested to determine the following:

• Bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) and bidirectional transmittance distribution function (BTDF), other scattering measurements on diffusers, patterned and diffused coatings, and materials for straylight suppression
• Directional transmittance and reflectance properties on thin foils
• Directional reflectance properties on front surface mirrors
• Angular color measurements of samples and measurements of optical filters

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Light-diffusing glass – covered, patterned, textured, and coated – are widely used in solar panels, buildings, and greenhouses. This type of glass captures and traps light better within a structure, ensuring maximum thermal energy efficiency and an optimized distribution of light. The ability to accurately measure the transmission and reflection properties of these materials is a key requirement in the development and manufacturing of high-efficiency solar cells and light-diffusing glazing. To quantify high efficiency, these materials are tested and measured according to NFRC standards.

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Measurements of optical components are some of the most challenging types of analytical methods. Optical components are used for a variety of applications: lenses, filters, lasers etc. Optical coatings composed of thin films of dielectric materials have long been commonplace in both the optics and glass industries. In the last two decades, the range of available optical coatings has broadened considerably as new materials have emerged to meet new applications. For the successful study of the properties of optical components and thin film structures the use of non-destructive methods as UV/Vis/NIR or FTIR spectroscopy are preferred.

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