Vacuum insulating glass (VIG) unit with lead-free dual-frit seals and/or methods of making the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10465433-B2
Application number	US-201715417273-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 27, 2017
Priority date	Feb 4, 2014
Publication date	Nov 5, 2019
Grant date	Nov 5, 2019

Abstract

Certain example embodiments of this invention relate to vacuum insulating glass (VIG) units having improved seals made using two different frit-based edge seal materials, and/or methods of making the same. In certain example embodiments, a first frit material is applied around peripheral edges of first and second glass substrates. The first frit material, which may be bismuth-based in certain example embodiments, is fired with a heat treatment (e.g., thermal tempering) process. A second frit material, which may be VBZ-based in certain example embodiments, is applied and at least partially overlaps with the fired first frit material. The first frit material acts as a primer, and the second frit material helps seal together the VIG unit. The second frit material is fired at a significantly lower temperature that enables the glass to retain the temper or other strength imparted by the heat treatment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A vacuum insulating glass (VIG) unit, comprising:
first and second substantially parallel, spaced apart glass substrates;
a plurality of spacers disposed between the first and second substrates;
an edge seal provided around the periphery of the first and/or second substrates, the first and second substrates, together with the edge seal, defining a cavity therebetween, the cavity being at a pressure less than atmospheric pressure; and
wherein the edge seal is an hermetic seal comprising both a first frit material that is a bismuth oxide based frit material, and a second frit material that is a vanadium oxide based frit material, bismuth oxide and vanadium oxide being the largest components of the first and second frit materials, respectively.

2. The VIG unit of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second glass substrates is thermally tempered.

3. The VIG unit of claim 1 , wherein the first frit material comprises at least 65% bismuth oxide, by weight.

4. The VIG unit of claim 3 , wherein the first frit material comprises 70-80 wt. % bismuth oxide, 2-7 wt. % zinc oxide, 5-15 wt. % silicon oxide, 2-7 wt. % aluminum oxide.

5. The VIG unit of claim 1 , wherein the second frit material comprises vanadium oxide, barium oxide, and zinc oxide, in amounts that total at least 65% by weight.

6. The VIG unit of claim 1 , wherein the second frit material comprises 45-67 wt. % vanadium oxide, 7-25 wt. % barium oxide, and 4-17 wt. % zinc oxide.

Assignees

• Guardian Glass Llc

Inventors

• Hogan John P
• Dennis Timothy Alan
• Petrmichl Rudolph Hugo
• Kemenah Greg

Classifications

• C03C3/14

  containing boron · CPC title

• C03C8/22 Primary

  containing two or more distinct frits having different compositions · CPC title

• C03C3/122

  containing oxides of As, Sb, Bi, Mo, W, V, Te as glass formers · CPC title

• E06B3/6775

  Evacuating or filling the gap during assembly · CPC title

• C03B23/203

  Uniting glass sheets (C03B23/24 takes precedence) · CPC title