Glass Processing and Glass Fabrication
Glass Processing and Glass Fabrication
Technical and optical glass components are fabricated for applications in medical, consumer electronics, touch displays, point-of-sale, security, drones, sensors and outdoor devices.
Winovus is Singapore’s leading technical glass fabricator with unique expertise in optical coating and nanoimprint lithography (NIL).
We have in-house glass fabrication capabilities to manufacture technical glass, optical and scanner windows, high-reflective mirrors and cover glass. Our customised optical glasses and cover lens are CNC machined to support various shapes, surfaces, edging, and hole-drilling requirements.
Fabricated glass and optics are chemically strengthened to achieve the desired hardness and bending strength. Surface finishing processes such as screen printing are added for the customised design and edge border.
Surface Modification of Glass
For functional or optical requirements, we can customise optical thin-film coating to modify the surface properties of the fabricated glass and optics—for example, anti-reflection, superhydrophobic, metallic, and Diamond-like-carbon (DLC) coating. With nanoimprint technology, we can imprint micro and nanostructures on the fabricated glass substrate.
Winovus fabricate and optical coat on a wide range of glass substrates. Our range of optical glasses includes and is not limited to soda-lime glass, low-iron float glass, aluminosilicate (HIE) glass, borosilicate, quartz, fused silica, optical crown glass, and anti-glare (AG) glass by acid-etch.
Cover glass fabrication process flow
Customised Cover Glass and Optics
Winovus offer customised optical glass solutions for various industries and applications. Our glass optics are used in medical diagnostics devices. In addition, we support touchscreens, home automation touch control, medical glass touch units, consumer electronics touch displays and navigation displays glass applications.
We aim to meet all glass requirements with high quality and competitive prices, from prototyping to mass production. Please get in touch with us for your customised requirement.
Technical Glass Processing & Customisation Capabilities
We offer a wide substrate selection of glass substrate. Our range of optical glasses includes soda-lime glass, low-iron float glass, aluminosilicate (HIE) glass, borosilicate, quartz, fused silica, optical crown glass, and anti-glare (AG) glass by acid-etch.
Scribe-and-break is a separation method that involves dry-cutting without any water source. This increases overall processing speed and can significantly impact the surface material. This popular conventional method helps to cut materials like glass and other substrates. The process involves forming a crack in the glass substrate through a cutting line, otherwise known as a “scribe line.” The crack breaks further to create separate plates to work with.
Our CNC scribe-and-break process requires a small processing width. The scribe line, as mentioned above, can only be a few micrometres. The work remains pristine, as chipping is nearly impossible at the cut edge with the technology used. For curve cutting and linear processing, the scribe-and-break method is excellent. When it comes to more complex shapes, we recommend other processes such as laser glass cutting.
Scribe-and-break cutting specifications:
| Maximum size | 800mm x 800mm |
|---|---|
| Substrate thickness | 0.4mm – 6.0 mm |
| Cutting tolerance | up to +/- 0.3mm |
Glass edging is the grinding process along the edge of the substrate to remove any sharp raw components. Glass edging guarantees safe handling, cleanliness, improved tolerance, and enhanced protection from chipping.
We use CNC edging to create customised edge profiles. Glass edging is precise. It can generate beveled edges such as flat ground, edge chamfer, pencil ground, beveled ground and polished edge.
Glass Edging Specifications:
| Substrate thickness | 0.5mm to 12mm |
|---|---|
| tolerance | up to +/- 0.2mm |
Computer Numerical Control [CNC] glass processing is the best option for precision cutting, edging and generating customised glass shapes.
With CNC glass machining, we can create complex-based glass designs like circle grinding, bevels, stepped surfaces, chamfers, hole drilling, edge grinding, notching, grooving, and many more. CNC machining guarantees consistent precision, flexibility, and repetition for complex and custom shapes for high-volume manufacturing.
CNC Glass Processing Specifications:
| Maximum size | 600mm x 600mm |
|---|---|
| Substrate thickness | 0.4mm – 6.0 mm |
| Profile tolerance | +/- 0.1mm |
| Minimum hole size | 1mm |
| Notches, slots and grooves minimum | 3.0 +/- 0.2mm |
| Chamfer, bevel, or step-edge machining tolerance | +/- 0.2 mm |
Chemical tempering can strengthen glass by 5x to 10x for touch screen applications via potassium ion and sodium exchange in a salt bath. Chemical strengthening creates high-performance glass with no optical distortion, better impact resistance, and improved flexibility strength. The enhanced properties make it suitable for glass screens on electronic devices.
Most glass types can undergo chemical tempering to boost their physical makeup and durability. The chemical composition of the bath and the soaking duration can be customised, allowing this process to be tailored to suit the material’s final application.
Glass Strengthening Specifications:
| Increase the strength of annealed float glass | 5X to 10X |
|---|---|
| Impact resistance | Up to 7 joules of drop-ball test |
| Increase scratch resistance | Up to 9H |
| Minimum glass thickness | 0.3mm |
| Maximum size | 800mm x 600mm |
Silkscreen printing allows for stylistic customisation on glass surfaces. Our premium printing gives your touch panel and windows a unique appearance and function. The pinhole-free printing process has an accurate edge and dimensional contrast.
There are no limitations to what patterns and colours can be applied via silkscreen printing. This capability allows for the creation of a unique glass composition.
Speciality paint can also be specially mixed and applied to add functionality to the painted components, such as conductivity, ultra matting effect, colour filtering, weatherproofing, etc.
Silk-screen Painting on Glass Specifications:
| Type | Solvent-based, 2-component or UV-curable ink transforms your artwork into high-quality and durable decorative printings on the glass |
|---|---|
| Colours | Standard, custom-blend, and metallic |
| Printing tolerance | up to +/- 0.3mm |
Winovus can customise thin-film coating on the glass to modify the surface properties. Thin films are deposited on the glass to influence and control reflectance, transmittance, absorbance and scratch resistance.
Optical thin-film coating can solve various problems found with glass substrate materials. Some common issues thin-film coating can help includes: fogging and moisture buildup, contamination (from materials that could negatively impact the substrate material), and fingerprint and grease buildup. Other protective applications include Smudge (AF) Resistant coating, Hydrophobic Coating, Oleophobic Coating, Anti-Reflective Coating, Dielectric Mirror Coating and Anti-scratch coating.
For touch screen display stacks (adhesion promotion), protection of camera and surveillance lenses (hydrophobic coating), electronic medical equipment requiring hydrophilic treatments, anti-fog treatments, and more, optical thin-film coating can bring the best out of your glass substrate. Without this coating in place, the substrate is vulnerable to defection.
We also customise coating solutions for decorative and other functional applications.
Specifications
- In-house electron beam physical vapour deposition (E-beam PVD) coating and Sputtering provides customisation and improvement to the optical and functional performance of glass substrates
- Anti-reflection (AR) coating on glass significantly improve light transmission across a broad spectrum of 200 – 1000nm wavelength, covering infra-red, visible, and ultraviolet regions.
- Smudge-resistant (AF) coating provides excellent water, and oil repellence and enhances the cleanability to the glass surface
- High-reflectance metallic or dielectric coating on glass can also be customised to suit your applications.
About Us
Winovus is a pioneer in nanofabrication. We offer nanoimprint technology, nano injection molding, optical coating and customised mold fabrication for optical and functional structured surfaces applications.
Let us know how we can help.
Want to find out more about Winovus’ products and services?
Fill up the form below to enquire with us today.