TROY, Mich. -- Buyers can expect to see a wider use of solar glass in their cars as a means of reducing interior heat and helping less efficient but more environmentally safe air conditioners, officials of PPG Industries Inc. said Wednesday.
Also expected to be seen are new glass compositions that dramatically cut infrared rays and moisture-sensitive windshields that automatically activate the wipers, they said during a tour of the company's new Automotive Technical Center. The facility opened last September in Troy.
But such new innovations may not be immediately clear to car buyers, or even to automakers. That presents a challenge for glass suppliers like PPG, which are working with automakers to develop the most complex shapes and largest sizes of glass ever for future vehicle designs.
'It is an educational and marketing problem we face,' said Robert K. Moore, general manager of sales for PPG's Automotive Glass Group, adding that any new technology must be weighed by function, cost and manufacturing complexity.
A high priority of any glass supplier is to provide vehicle makers with glass that can control or cut interior heat buildup -- a challenge because designers will require larger glass areas.
That will be compounded by air conditioners that will become less efficient because of concerns over chlorofluorocarbon emissions and a change to more environmentally safe coolants within the next few years.
PPG, the third-largest supplier of original equipment automotive glass in North America, makes the massive windshield used in General Motors Corp.'s new front-drive minivans like the Chevrolet Lumina APV.
This 17.25-square-foot windshield has a coating that cuts or absorbs over 60 percent of the heat striking the glass to minimize interior temperatures or raise interior comfort.
PPG, which among others supplies GM, Chrysler Corp. and American Honda, also expects its new Solextra 7010 composition glass to be adopted by some carmakers within the next five to seven years.
Now installed on several top line models of Fiat's Lancia Thema sedan in Europe, the bluish tint glass blocks nearly 60 percent of the sun's energy while transmitting 75 percent of the sun's visible light -- 5 percent more than the North American vehicle standard.
The color of glass, which has for the most part been green because of the iron oxide used in the tinting process, is also an area that may play a larger role in future vehicle design in which glasswill account for a larger percentage of the exterior surface, Moore said.
Surprisingly, there is no comprehensive data on hand yet to determine which shades may be easier on a driver's eyes or which transmit a wider light band, he said.
PPG and other glassmakers are also developing sun roofs with photovoltaic cells that activate interior cooling fans and variable transmittance coatings that could darken the glass in parked cars with a switch to reduce radiant energy in the interior.
Some breakthroughs in automotive glass have not always been successful, while others are just downright impractical, like a double-paned glass that could dramatically cut interior sound.
The anti-lacerative windshields found on some GM cars several years ago and supplied in part by PPG are no longer offered, Moore said. Those windshields had a plastic laminate on the interior side, instead of being sandwiched between two glass layers to reduce occupant injury.
But they were found to scratch easily if consumers did not care for them properly, Moore said.
