Glazed element, device with glazed element and associated thermal imaging camera

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12083768-B2
Application number	US-202117927596-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 26, 2021
Priority date	May 28, 2020
Publication date	Sep 10, 2024
Grant date	Sep 10, 2024

Abstract

A glazed element includes a vehicle glazing having an external main face intended to be oriented toward an exterior and an internal main face intended to be on a passenger compartment side, the glazing including a through-hole between the internal main face and the external face, the through-hole being delimited by a side wall of the glazing, and, in the through-hole, an insert made of material that is transparent in an LB range of wavelengths in an infrared spectrum ranging at least from 9.5 μm to 10.5 μm, the insert being made of material of refractive index n in the LB range, with an interior face and an exterior face, wherein the interior and exterior faces of the insert form a non-zero angle at an apex A, the insert having a thickness e that is variable and decreasing toward an upper edge of the glazing.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A glazed element comprising:
a vehicle glazing having an external main face intended to be oriented toward an exterior and an internal main face intended to be on a passenger compartment side, the glazing comprising a through-hole between the internal main face and the external main face, the through-hole being delimited by a side wall of the glazing, and
in said through-hole, an insert made of material that is transparent in range of wavelengths in an infrared spectrum ranging at least from 9.5 μm to 10.5 μm, the insert being made of material of refractive index n in said range of wavelengths, with an interior face and an exterior face,
wherein the interior and exterior faces of the insert form a non-zero angle at an apex A, the insert having a thickness e that is variable and decreasing toward an upper edge of the glazing.

2. The glazed element according to claim 1 , wherein the variable thickness e is within a range of from 3 to 10 mm.

3. The glazed element according to claim 1 , wherein the interior face of the insert forms a non-zero angle with the internal main face of the glazing and/or the exterior face of the insert is parallel or coplanar with the external main face of the glazing or forms an angle of at most 2° with the external main face of the glazing.

4. The glazed element according to claim 1 , wherein the exterior face of the insert is flush with or set back from the external main face of the glazing.

5. The glazed element according to claim 1 , wherein an angle of the apex A is at least 2° and at most 30°.

6. The glazed element according to claim 1 , wherein a diameter of the exterior face of the insert is at most 35 mm.

7. The glazed element according to claim 1 , wherein the exterior face of the insert is inscribed within a rectangle of width Wi and height Di with Di/Wi ratio of at least 0.8 and at most 1.1 with Di at most 35 mm and at least 5 mm.

8. The glazed element according to claim 1 , wherein the material of the insert has an infrared optical transmission of at least 30% in said range of wavelengths and a light transmission of at least 25% at a reference wavelength of between 500 nm and 600 nm.

9. The glazed element according to claim 1 , wherein the glazing forms a laminated glazing, the laminated glazing comprising a first glass sheet with said external main and an opposite face and a second glass or plastic sheet with said internal main face on the interior side of the passenger compartment, the first and second sheets being bonded by a lamination interlayer made of a polymer material.

10. A device comprising:
the glazed element according to claim 1 , the vehicle glazing having an inclination defined by an angle α relative to a horizontal in mounted position, and
a thermal camera, arranged on a side of the internal main face, facing the insert, in such a way as to receive electromagnetic radiation after passage through the insert, the thermal camera comprising a pupil and an infrared detection system in said range of wavelengths, the thermal camera being defined by a vertical angle of view θ of at least 10°.

11. The device according to claim 10 , wherein the thermal camera has an optical axis X passing through a center C of the pupil, the thermal camera forming a positive angle of inclination T with a horizontal axis X0, upstream from the internal main face, the thermal camera being tilted upward.

12. The device according to claim 11 , wherein, when a ray R is incident to the exterior face of the insert in a horizontal direction, R then being refracted during its passage through the insert, an angle D 0 of deflection by the insert of the ray R is defined by:

D
O

=

π
2

-
α
+

sin

-
1

(

n
⁢

sin
(

A
-

sin

-
1

(

sin
⁡
(

π
2

-
α

)

n

)

)

)

-
A

T is chosen such that T equals D 0 ±10° while remaining positive.

13. The device according to claim 11 , wherein the angle of inclination T is at most 30° with the horizontal X0.

14. The device according to claim 10 , wherein the thermal camera is arranged facing the insert so that by defining an incident ray tangential to the exterior face of the insert, refracted in the insert, and emerging from the interior face of the insert forming an angle θ 1 with the optical axis X, θ 1 is greater than or equal to 0.7θ/2, tangential incident ray in the vertical plane that contains X and arriving from a lower area, below the insert.

15. The device according to claim 10 , wherein the exterior face of the insert is inscribed within a rectangle defining a center M′ which is an intersection of diagonals of said rectangle, defining a ray R′ incident to the exterior face of the insert in a horizontal direction passing through said center M′ refracted during its passage through the insert, the ray R′ is collected by the pupil and is located at most 5 mm away from a center C of the pupil.

16. The device according to claim 10 , wherein the thermal camera is tilted upward and the camera is placed nearer than a minimum approach distance corresponding to that of the camera when horizontal.

17. The device according to claim 11 , wherein a range of values of A i is determined that satisfy the following equation:

A
i

≤

sin
⁡
(

π
2

+

θ
2

-

T
′

Assignees

• Saint Gobain

Inventors

• Berard Mathieu
• Yavari Keihann
• Breniere Xavier

Classifications

• B61D25/00

  Window arrangements peculiar to rail vehicles (vehicle window arrangements in general B60J; cleaning vehicle windows B60S; heating arrangements specially adapted for transparent or reflecting areas H05B3/84) · CPC title

• B32B17/10761

  containing vinyl acetal · CPC title

• B32B3/266

  characterised by an apertured layer, the apertures going through the whole thickness of the layer, e.g. expanded metal, perforated layer, slit layer regular cells B32B3/12 · CPC title

• H04N23/23

  from thermal infrared radiation · CPC title

• B32B17/10036 Primary

  comprising two outer glass sheets · CPC title