Luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit and automotive vehicle with such a glazing unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10105933-B2
Application number	US-201615563232-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 25, 2016
Priority date	Apr 3, 2015
Publication date	Oct 23, 2018
Grant date	Oct 23, 2018

Abstract

A luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit includes a first glazing pane, made of organic or mineral glass, of refractive index n 1 of at least 1.4 with first and second main faces; a light source coupled to the first glazing pane; and a light-extracting system including a scattering layer of width of at least 1 cm including scattering dielectric particles bound by a transparent matrix of refractive index n 2 . The scattering particles are mainly microparticles that are spaced apart from one another and that include a shell made of a transparent dielectric material and making contact with the transparent matrix, the shell surrounding a core of refractive index n 3 of at most 1.15 and of largest dimension called D 3 in a range extending from 5 μm to 200 μm, the microparticles having a largest dimension D′ smaller than 2D 3 .

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit comprising:
a glazing module with an edge face and two external main faces, said glazing module including at least one first glazing pane, made of organic or mineral glass, of refractive index n 1 of at least 1.4 with first and second main faces;
a light source optically coupled to the glazing module, the glazing module forming a guide of light emitted by the light source; and
a light-extracting system configured to extract the guided light in order to form a scattering zone of width of at least 1 cm, said light-extracting system including a scattering layer comprising scattering dielectric particles bound by a matrix, said scattering layer being associated with one of the first or second main faces;
wherein the matrix is transparent and of refractive index n 2 at least equal to n 1 or such that n 1 −n 2 is at most 0.15, and
wherein the scattering particles are mainly microparticles that are spaced apart from one another and that comprise a shell made of a transparent dielectric material and making contact with the transparent matrix, said shell surrounding a core of refractive index n 3 of at most 1.15, said core having a largest dimension D 3 in a range extending from 5 μm to 200 μm, the microparticles having a largest dimension D′ smaller than 2D 3 .

2. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein a degree of coverage of the microparticles is at most 20%.

3. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the degree of coverage of the microparticles is at most 1%.

4. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the microparticles are hollow.

5. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the dielectric material of the shell is mineral glass, silica or a metal oxide.

6. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the dielectric material of the shell is mineral glass, silica or a metal oxide.

7. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said largest dimension D 3 is in the range extending from 20 μm to 100 μm.

8. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the scattering layer includes a layer binding the microparticles made of a material chosen from an organic binder, or a mineral binder and/or the scattering layer includes a PVB layer binding the microparticles.

9. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the organic binder is based on acrylate, silicone, epoxy, silicone-epoxy or polyurethane, and the mineral binder is a metal oxide and/or silica.

10. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the scattering layer is directly on the first main face or the second main face of the first glazing pane, and, defining the haze H 1 , in the off state, of the first glazing pane and scattering layer together, H 1 is at most 10%.

11. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 10 , wherein H 1 is at most 2%.

12. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the scattering layer is directly on the first main face or the second main face of the first glazing pane, and, the image clearness, in the off state, of the first glazing pane and the scattering layer together, is at least 90%.

13. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the light source includes a set of light-emitting diodes.

14. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the lamination interlayer is a clear or tinted PVB.

15. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 13 , wherein the first and second glazing panes are curved, the first glazing pane is clear or extra-clear and the lamination interlayer and/or the second glazing pane is tinted.

16. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the light source is optically coupled to the first glazing pane, the scattering layer is on the first main face or on the second main face, the glazing module is a laminated glazing unit including said first glazing pane made of mineral glass, and including on a side of the second main face a lamination interlayer made of a thermoplastic polymeric material and a second glazing pane made of mineral glass, said luminous glazing unit being chosen from:
a roof, with the first glazing pane innermost, the scattering layer is between the second face and the lamination interlayer;
a windshield, with the first glazing pane innermost, the scattering layer is between the second face and the lamination interlayer; and
a side window or rear-door window or a rear windshield, with the first glazing pane outermost, the scattering layer is between the second face and the lamination interlayer.

17. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the light source is optically coupled to the first glazing pane, the glazing module is a laminated glazing unit including said first glazing pane made of mineral glass and, on a side of the second main face, a lamination interlayer made of a thermoplastic polymeric material and a second glazing pane made of mineral glass, and wherein a layer of porous silica sol-gel of refractive index of at most 1.3 is on the second main face of the first glazing pane and the scattering layer is on the first main face or on the second main face adjacent to the porous silica layer.

18. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the light source is optically coupled to the first glazing pane, the glazing module is a laminated glazing unit including said first glazing pane made of mineral glass, a lamination interlayer made of thermoplastic polymeric material and a second glazing pane made of mineral glass, and wherein the microparticles are bound by the polymeric material forming all or some of the transparent matrix.

19. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the light source is optically coupled to the first glazing pane, the scattering layer is on the first main face or on the second main face, and the glazing module is a monolithic glazing unit.

20. The luminous automotive-vehicle glazing unit as claimed in claim 19 , wherein the first glazing pane made of mineral glass is thermally tempered and/or curved.

21. An automotive vehicle incorporating a luminous glazing unit as claimed in claim 1 .

22. The automotive vehicle incorporating a luminous glazing unit as claimed in claim 21 , wherein the luminous glazing unit an automobile roof.

Assignees

• Saint Gobain

Inventors

• Berard Mathieu
• Dubost Brice

Classifications

• B32B17/10614

  comprising particles for purposes other than dyeing · CPC title

• B32B17/10761

  containing vinyl acetal · CPC title

• F21S43/14

  Light emitting diodes [LED] · CPC title

• G02B5/0242

  by means of dispersed particles · CPC title

• B32B17/10293

  Edge features, e.g. inserts or holes · CPC title