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Application of laser technology in gas content detection of gas-filled insulated glass

To keep up with the market's requirements for high-performance insulating glass products, glass deep-processing companies have been making unremitting efforts in quality control, especially when it comes to the gas retention of inflated insulating glass. The new non-destructive testing method makes it a reality, that is, to detect the gas content of any complicated insulating glass configuration to ensure that the inflated insulating glass delivered to the end customer meets the order requirements.

Nowadays, the market has higher and higher performance requirements for glass products, and the increasing demand makes glass deep processing manufacturers not slack in product quality. Today's glass products contain a variety of elements to enhance their performance. One of the main features is energy saving, whether it is applied in hot or cold construction projects. Energy-saving properties can be achieved in many ways, such as coating glass, using multiple pieces of glass, and adding a gaseous medium between two pieces of glass. The medium can be air, vacuum, or a specific gas-usually inert gas such as argon or krypton.

The laser detector detects the content of insulated glass 1

The laser detector detects the content of insulated glass 1

A common way to enhance the insulation performance of insulating glass is to fill the spacer layer with argon or krypton. This operation can be carried out through the plate pressing section of the automatic hollow production line, or it can be done by semi-automatic manual operation. The challenge of this task is how to judge the correct aeration content and how to ensure that the initial concentration of the aerated insulating glass meets the standard. Gas may escape through the improper coating of the insulating glass sealant. This requires gas content testing before packaging and shipping to customers. The product liability of insulating glass products and door and window companies usually lasts for several years after delivery. Therefore, they are looking for ways to increase the safety of gas filling.

Even if there is no clear standard in all regions, the glass deep processing industry and manufacturing companies have accumulated best practices to manufacture high-quality inflatable insulating glass products. The fact is that small-molecule gases are easier to leak, and this is the real challenge. Therefore, to ensure that the gas content can reach the highest after the completion of the filling operation, the glass deep-processing enterprises set the gas content to 95% or higher.

The insulating glass production line with gas filling function 1

The Jinan LIJIANG insulating glass production line with gas filling function 1

The actual argon content can be measured by destructive or non-destructive detection methods. The destructive detection methods require the use of a syringe to pierce the sealant of the hollow glass into the inter-cavity layer to take gas, and then automatically calculate the gas sample taken. These methods are usually cheap and highly accurate and robust technologies, but they need to destroy the hollow glass structure. In actual operation, this means that the measured insulating glass product cannot be repackaged and delivered to the customer, nor can it be repeatedly measured.

The non-destructive detection method can detect the gas content based on not destroying the hollow glass structure. The most commonly used nondestructive testing method at present is plasma emission spectroscopy, that is, the testing instrument excites the surface of the glass to be tested by high-voltage electric spark discharge, so that the argon gas in the spacer layer is ionized, and the instrument collects the light beam after the gas is ionized. The gas content will be calculated automatically. This detection method is fast and accurate and is widely used in the field of ordinary double-piece insulating glass. It only needs to lightly touch the non-coated surface to randomly take points for measurement. Non-destructive testing methods can also perform repeated testing on the same piece of gas-filled hollow glass product according to the quality system or customer requirements. However, the technical limitation of plasma emission spectroscopy is that it can only measure two-piece hollow glass products coated on one side.

The tunable semiconductor laser detection technology 1

The tunable semiconductor laser detection technology 1

At present, the latest developments in the technical field of measurement have solved the problems encountered in the application of the above detection methods to the gas content of the inflated insulating glass. The latest tunable semiconductor laser technology can perform non-destructive testing of gas-filled insulating glass products through the coating and laminating.

This innovative technology can detect the gas content of gas-filled insulating glass products with complex structures, such as the energy-saving three-glass two-cavity gas-filled insulating glass. Laser technology improves the quality assurance of these high-performance products to match product expectations. Because this laser technology measures the oxygen content in the spacer layer through a non-destructive method, it can detect the content of any kind of gas.

The tunable laser beam is injected into the insulating glass 1

The tunable laser beam is injected into the insulating glass 1

This innovative technology applies a tunable laser beam into the hollow glass and uses the reflection, intensity, and harmonic changes of the measurement signal to determine the oxygen content in the spacer layer. Then, the oxygen content is converted into the percentage of inert gas (the term "inert gas" is provided by Google). The most commonly used inert gases are argon and krypton.

For a fully automated insulating glass production line with efficient quality control, it can read the gas content information in each piece of inflated insulating glass. The laser gas analysis system meets this requirement and can be integrated and installed on the existing hollow production line to connect with the production control software or system. In today's production management and operations, quality control plays an unprecedented role. It can not only eliminate the appearance of defective products but also provide technical support when sales complaints occur. 

To learn more about the fully automated insulating glass production line with argon gas filling function, please click here to learn more.


For more information about Jinan LIJIANG Glass insulating glass processing equipment and insulating glass processing accessories, please click here to learn more. 

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