Adam Polcyn, PhD (Vitro)

Modern window glass used in residential and commercial buildings, and in automobiles, is manufactured as large, highly uniform, flat sheets using the float glass process. In many cases, float glass manufacturers will also apply thin film coatings to these flat sheets, either online during the float glass manufacturing process, or later in offline processes such as the magnetron sputter vacuum deposition (MSVD) process. These thin film coatings are applied to provide additional functionality and thus value to the glass, such as the ability to regulate infrared energy (radiant heat), or the ability to conduct electrical current. Both the float glass manufacturing and MSVD coating processes are data rich, due in part to the technological complexity of the processes and in part to the large scale of the processes. In this presentation I will give an account of the basic elements of the float glass and MSVD coating processes, identify some opportunities for data science to improve and optimize these processes, and describe work that has been done by Vitro Flat Glass LLC, the largest manufacturer of float and MSVD coated glass in North America, in recent years to realize some of these opportunities.