World's Lightest Material - Maybe Your Next WFP?

Your next Waterfed Pole could be made from this. As it stands, it is already very similar.

World’s Lightest Material Developed: Washington, Nov 19 (TruthDive): Scientists claim to have created the world’s lightest solid material so light that even a feathery dandelion can comfortably hold its weight without having its little fluffy seeds mashed. A team of researchers from UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology have developed the material with a density of 0.9 mg/cc.

The substance is made of tiny hollow metallic tubes – the walls of which are 1,000 times thinner than those of a human hair – arranged into a criss-crossing diagonal pattern with small open spaces between them. It has a unique “micro-lattice” cellular architecture. The secret to its lightness is a cellular architecture fabricated from hollow tubes that supports a material structure that is in reality 99.99 per cent air, according to the research team that built it.

That means the material’s density is less than one-thousandth that of water. And the stuff is pretty resilient as well—researchers said that when squashed to half its height, the material rebounds 98 per cent of the way back. “The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair,” lead author Tobias Shandler of HRL said.

Bill Carter, manager of the architected materials group at HRL, said that to understand the structure of the material, it can be compared with either the Eiffel Tower in Paris or the Golden Gate Bridge over San Francisco Bay. Like each of them, the material is light and weight-efficient, but on a Nano scale.

The material seen in the picture above is made out of 90 percent nickel. According to Carter, however, it can be made out of other metals as well — the nickel version was just the easiest to make, the report stated. The first time the stress test was carried out and repeated the material became less stiff and strong, but the team says that further compressions made very little difference. “Materials actually get stronger as the dimensions are reduced to the nanoscale,” said team member Lorenzo Valdevit.

According to the scientists, the material, extraordinarily strong and shock-absorbent, is like a feather. It floats down, and its terminal velocity depends on the density. When dropped from shoulder height, it takes more than 10 seconds to touch the ground.

United States Engineers Reveal World’s “Lightest Material” - A team of engineers from the U.S. claim to have produced the world’s lightest material. The material is composed of tiny hollow metallic tubes that are organized into a micro-lattice – a criss-cross pattern with small open spaces between the tubes. The scientists claim that the material is about 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and boasts “extraordinarily high energy absorption” properties. Some of the possible uses for such a material include a new generation of batteries and shock absorbers.

Producing the “Ultra Light” Material: The research was conducted at the University of California, Irvine, HRL Laboratories and the California Institute of Technology and will be published in the newest edition of Science. "The trick is to fabricate a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair," noted lead author Dr. Tobias Schaedler. The produced material has a density of around 0.9 milligrams per cubic centimeter. Just to compare, the density of silica aerogels – the world’s lightest solid materials – is only as low as 1.0mg per cubic cm.

The metallic micro-lattices have the advantage since they are composed of 99.99% air and 0.01% solids. The engineers say that the material’s strength lies in the ordered nature of its lattice design. Other ultra light substances, including aerogels and metallic foams, have random cellular structures; meaning that they are more flexible, strong and absorb more energy than most of the raw materials that they are composed of. William Carter, manager of architected materials at HRL, drew a likeness between the new material and larger low-density structures. "Modern buildings, exemplified by the Eiffel Tower or the Golden Gate Bridge are incredibly light and weight-efficient by virtue of their architecture," he commented.

"We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the nano and micro scales." To analyze the power of the metallic micro-lattices the team compressed them until they had only half of their original width. After taking away the load, the substance recovered 98% of its original height and took on its original shape. The first time that the stress test was conducted and repeated the material loss some of its stiffness and strength, but the engineers noted that further compressions didn’t make much of a difference. "Materials actually get stronger as the dimensions are reduced to the nanoscale," said team member Lorenzo Valdevit."Combine this with the possibility of tailoring the architecture of the micro-lattice and you have a unique cellular material."

Glass, Technology, Coatings & Solar News For Window Cleaners

Aston Martin glass phone concept oozes class, just like the cars: Aston Martin makes some of the most drool-worthy cars on the planet, so any phone that's going to carry the Aston Martin logo had better look pretty sleek. This transparent phone concept from Mobiado should do the trick, with a wow factor that will get tongues wagging even if you aren't standing next to the car itself. Far from being just a cool phone with a fancy logo slapped onto it, the CPT002 can control many of the car's functions. Just having it in your pocket operates the keyless entry system, and once you're moving the phone can do things like automatically upload pictures from onboard cameras in the car to your social networks, so your friends can see where you're traveling, It will even use its accelerometer to measure your movement in an accident, then adjust the airbag deployment speed and seat belt tensioner to fit the situation. While it is a concept, this isn't just some pie-in-the-sky phone that will never exist in the real world. Aston Martin is working with Mobiado to create something real for their customers.

At ground zero, the future finally appears: The noise at ground zero is a steady roar. Engines hum. Cement mixers churn. Air horns blast. Cranes, including one that looks like a giant crab leg, soar and crawl over every corner of the 16-acre site. For years, the future has been slow to appear at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But with six months remaining until the national 9/11 memorial opens, the work to turn a mountain of rubble into some of the inspiring moments envisioned nearly a decade ago is thundering forward. One World Trade Center, otherwise known as the Freedom Tower, has joined the Manhattan skyline. Its steel frame, already clad in glass on lower floors, now stands 58 stories tall and is starting to inch above many of the skyscrapers that ring the site. A new floor is being added every week. On the 29th floor, men preparing to install window glass last week were tethered to the building by safety cables as they worked near the ledge. Even their hard hats were attached by a safety line, in case they were knocked over the side. A yellow line, painted on the concrete deck, marked how close workers are allowed to stand without wearing a safety harness.

Canada's first cathedral in 50 years will use solar cells: The first Roman Catholic Cathedral to be built in Canada in 50 years will become the first in the world to integrate solar energy collection and stained glass. In May, windows laced with solar cells will be installed into the $28.5 million Cathedral of the Holy Family in Saskatoon, Sask. The windows are the creation of Toronto artist Sarah Hall. Divided into 18 painted glass panels each, the three finished windows will contain a total of 1,113 solar cells and will produce as much energy as five Canadian households use in a year. The largest of the three will measure 37 feet high by 12 feet wide. To create a solar stained glass window, the glass is painted and fired with metallic oxides, which fuse onto the base glass. The painted glass is then tempered and silver polycrystalline solar cells are soldered and embedded into the painted surface. A layer of ultra-white tempered glass is then laminated on top and the window is made into a thermopane.

Canada adopts lower window-to-wall ratio proposal: Like the attempt at ASHRAE to reduce window-to-wall ratio in the prescriptive commercial building codes, similar moves to reduce glass have been proposed and passed in Canada, reported Margaret Webb, executive director, Insulating Glass Manufacturers Alliance, Ottawa, Ontario, at the association's Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. Canada's Standing Committee of Energy Efficiency in Buildings fast -tracked a proposal to reduce the ratio, called the fenestration/door to wall area ratio, for prescriptive requirements. In the ASHRAE 90.1 proposal, the WWR would have been reduced to a blanket 30 percent. Under the SCEEB proposal, the FDWR would be set to a declining value based on heating degree days, using the quadratic equation.

"Instead of just setting a value, they used a creation based on heating degree days," Webb said. "While it wasn't going to have as significant of an impact as that of the ASHRAE proposal, it was serious enough to warrant attention." IGMA submitted a negative, as did the Canadian Home Builders' Association, proposing a compromise solution that would provide a lesser reduction in the FDWR. "The amount of the ratio improved by about 5 percent across [most parts] of Canada," Webb said. The proposal, with the compromise ratio, was passed and the code is published.

Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia: A local glass manufacturing company is banking on the growing awareness among people in Sabah for safer products in promoting its safety glass products. This is apart from the emergence of new and less costly technology to produce tempered glass, one of the two kinds of safety glass regularly used in applications where standard glass could pose a potential danger, by China which makes it more affordable for people now, unlike before when it was costly. We just recently expanded our business to making tempered glass because most people need safety glass, that is tempered glass," said its Managing Director, Victor Su. Tempered glass is four times stronger than the standard glass and a person can stand on it without breaking it, he said after the official launching of his companies' Tempered Glassline. Su said the demand for tempered glass in Sabah is picking up because nowadays "we are going more into tourism, where safety aspects are of paramount importance people think about safety more now." Manufactured through a process of extreme heating and rapid cooling that make it harder than normal glass, tempered glass is four to five times stronger than standard glass and does not break into sharp shards when it fails. The thermal process that curves tempered glass also makes it heat resistant.

Cracks develop in glass wall at Ahmedabad airport’s international terminal (India): The swanky international terminal of the city airport is facing an unexpected problem for the last couple of months. Many of the glass tiles used in the construction of the glass wall at the terminal have developed cracks on their own, for no apparent reason. Some officials of the Airport Authority of India, however, blame the labourers working at the airport for the cracked tiles, while some others say the tiles had cracked because of the increasing summer heat. Sources at the airport said that at least a dozen glass tiles had cracked in the last couple of months. Fortunately, none of the affected tiles had splintered completely. They looked like frosted glass with cracks but had held together. This had prevented mishaps that might have been caused by shards of glass detached from completely broken tiles. Another senior official, however, said that the glass tiles had developed cracks because of the growing summer heat. There was no other explanation for the rapidity with which the tiles were cracking, he said. A third group of officials believes that the quality of the glass used in the construction of the glass wall was not upto the mark.

Crisis in Japan Sparks Conversations About Security Film: While natural disasters are, for the most part, unavoidable there are some things that can help better protect those in nature’s way. The recent earthquakes and tsunami in Japan have led to discussions about the role window film can play in mitigating such disasters. A product like security film can assist in protecting victims during a hurricane or earthquake from shards of glass or the danger of objects entering through broken windows. In the case of Japan, film may not have made any difference during the tsunami’s push, but it may have provided extra protection during the earthquake. “With Japan’s tsunami, film wouldn’t have been able to do a whole lot because of the force of the water. However, seismic activity is something film has been used for to help mitigate damage,” says Lewis Pitzer, special projects coordinator for American Standard Window Film in Las Vegas, Nev. “We can put the film on and in the event of racking or seismic activity it can help make the glass break safely.” Breaking safely means that the film will hold the glass shards in place as opposed to becoming possibly lethal projectiles. With the addition of attachment systems film can keep these shards or tempered pieces intact in the window frame and allow for a more secure building envelope.

“There is a benefit to adding film to tempered glass because you might not want to lose that opening. When thinking of contingency planning, if it‘s an area where you need to stay open like an emergency response center or a business corporate headquarters on the trading floor, you still might not want to have a situation where the tempered glass breaks and exits the frame and you are sitting there with open windows,” says Pitzer. “With film and the proper use of an attachment system on two vertical sides it will hold the whole broken piece in place. You will have a membrane that keeps the building envelope contained. That can be very important for a building like a hospital.” In Japan’s case a variety of buildings could have benefited from the use of film. Film used on school windows can protect children inside. Hospitals and clinics need the ability to remain open and manageable and film can assist with that goal. “What we found in the Bay Area after the 1989 earthquake was a lot of glass breakage. As widespread as the glass breakage was, there was no way to get everything boarded up,” says Scott Haddock, president and CEO of Glasslock Inc. in Easton, Md. “There was lousy weather for a week after the earthquake and it was really difficult to close up the envelope of all of these buildings. The good thing about film is that, as long as you can keep it in the frames, you can protect the envelope of your facilities.”

“In one case, there was a school system in California where there was a seismic event and they have annealed glass on the building and the glass broke and pieces broke off and went into the desk of the children. The kids weren’t there thankfully, but they realized the hazard and put film up,” says Pitzer. It’s important for dealers to remember that window film is not a hurricane-proof product. The product can help protect, but there is no guarantee of protection. “It’s like a bomb blast scenario—typically the target building doesn’t have a lot you can do for it, but the collateral affects. Buildings in the outer-lying areas that weren’t so close to the epicenter. It can minimize the collateral affects of things like broken glass,” says Haddock. “As long as it’s not over-sold it’s an excellent way to mitigate glass fragments in an event whether natural or man-made.”

Workers Use 'Liquid Glass' In Bid To Stop Toxic Leak At Japanese Plant - -Efforts to end the release of highly radioactive water into the ocean at Japan's stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant finally met with some success Tuesday with the injection of "liquid glass" gel around a damaged pipe managing to reduce the toxic flow in half, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said. Workers have tried a variety of methods to reduce the flow, put at several tons of water an hour. More info' here.

Metallic glass is stronger and tougher than steel: Ritchie has created metallic glass, a material he believes is the strongest and toughest to date. During our visit, Ritchie brought us to the bottom basement of the old engineering building to show us how he and his students try to break the new material to see if it’s resistant to fracture. In the future, Ritchie hopes metallic glass could one day be used for airplane engines and large structures such as bridges. Ritchie said “trying to get high strength and high toughness is very difficult. One of the holy grails is to get both high strength and high toughness [in materials]. We call that damage tolerance.” To make this metallic glass, the researchers used five elements to confuse the material. That way, the material couldn’t flex into automatic memory and form its normal, crystal structure. This is unusual, considering all metals have crystalline structures. Window panes are amorphous and aren’t crystalline in structure.

Like glass, the fabricated material was not crystalline. “We learned to make metals in this amorphous state,” Ritchie said. “There are stronger materials and there may be tougher materials, we know of no other material with the combination [we've made]. Strength and toughness are mutually exclusive, and we’ve achieved it in a material that you wouldn’t expect - in glass. Glass is usually brittle,” Ritchie said. The group from Cal Tech made the material from five or more elements. They melted it and it cooled quickly. The material wasn’t able to crystallize, so it formed an amorphous material. The Cal Tech team cut the material into little rods and sent them to Ritchie’s team at Berkeley to basically destroy the metallic glass. The experiments didn’t involve throwing the metallic glass against the floor though. Instead, Ritchie ran the metallic glass through mechanical testing machines. The machines could barely make the material crack. In the future, the new material could be used in nuclear pressure vessels because it has the same toughness as the material used today. A better material could help nuclear reactors avoid a catastrophic failure.

Next Princess Cruises ship to have glass-bottomed 'SeaWalk' -  Princess Cruises today announced its next ship will be called the Royal Princess -- a name the line has used twice before -- and revealed several new-to-the-industry features that will be aboard the vessel. Located on the starboard side of the 3,600-passenger vessel, the "SeaWalk," as Princess is calling the new feature, will offer dramatic views of the ocean 128 feet below. The Royal Princess also will have another cantilevered feature on the port side of the ship, the SeaView bar, which will have space for 20 people, Buckelew says.

Serious Materials Launches Window Retrofit System: Serious Materials announced the commercial launch of its glazing retrofit system that was used to update the windows of the Empire State Building for energy efficiency. iWindow is a retrofit glass system that doesn't replace the existing glass or alter the exterior appearance of the building. Serious Materials says the iWindow panel can be installed on the inside of the existing glass in as little as 20 minutes. At approximately $20 per square foot total installed cost, iWindow is 50% to 75% less costly to install compared to a typical aluminum replacement system which can dramatically impact the viability of such retrofit scenarios. Energy efficiency improvements can also return higher rents, secure greater occupancy, and generate higher resale value.

Each iWindow incorporates the SeriousGlass system. SeriousGlass units include spectrally-selective suspended film systems that create multiple air chambers, accomplishing high thermal performance of triple pane glass without the additional weight and structural concerns. Beyond super-insulating performance, SeriousGlass enables high light transmission, 99.5+% UV blockage, and reduced fading and damage to interior furnishings. iWindow is designed for any curtain wall or window wall commercial retrofit application and is ideally suited for historic and landmark projects as it allows preservation of the existing façade.

Spray-On Solar Glass Gets A Bit Bigger: We’ve seen New Energy Technologies announce a series of advances in its attempt to turn windows into solar panels, and now the company says it has a working, 1-square-foot see-through glass prototype that can generate electricity. An earlier version of this solar window was just 4 inches by 4 inches, and New Energy says the boost in size takes it a big step closer to bringing a product to market. “We continue to pursue an aggressive product development program, working to improve, among other things, solar cell efficiency, power output, durability, manufacturability and further scale-up,” says company president and CEO John Conklin.

New Energy’s process involves “spraying” electricity-generating, nano-sized solar cells directly onto glass, “eliminating expensive and often cumbersome or high-vacuum production methods typically used by current solar manufacturers,” it says. The coatings are less than 1/10th the thickness of thin films, New Energy says, taking advantage of what it calls “the world’s smallest functional solar cells.” The company claims that by generating electricity from both natural and artificial light sources, its cells “outperform today’s commercial solar and thin-film technologies by as much as tenfold.”

A manufacturer of bulletproof glass and solar panels has been sold after it went into administration in the wake of cashflow and accounting woes. Romag Holdings, which is based in County Durham and supplies security glass to banks, embassies and police stations, was sold to Ask The Genie, a subsidiary of property group Gentoo. The company identified cashflow problems and suspended its shares after an investigation into a £4 million payment ex-chairman John Kennair made to one of its divisions without informing the board. When Mr Kennair stepped down as chairman in February, Romag said it was experiencing significant demand for its products, particularly solar panels, and had a strong forward order book. But it was unable to secure further funding from its bank - Lloyds - and its trade and assets, including 160 staff, have been transferred to Ask The Genie. Romag supplies transparent material - glass and plastic - to security, renewable energy, architectural and specialist transport markets. It is one of only two solar panel manufacturers in the UK.

The John Hancock Tower is winner of the prestigious Twenty-Five Year Award. That honor is given to just one American work of architecture each year, a building that’s been around for at least a quarter century and proved its merit over time. And the Cambridge Public Library is winner of the Harleston Parker Medal. The Parker has been awarded annually since 1921 to “the most beautiful piece of architecture, building, monument or structure’’ in Greater Boston. The Twenty-Five Year is bestowed by the national American Institute of Architects. The Parker winner is chosen by the local Boston Society of Architects. The Hancock stands in Copley Square, and the library is at 449 Broadway in Mid-Cambridge. Some of the Hancock’s 10,344 glass window panels began cracking or falling out, especially in windstorms. All were removed, to be replaced for some months by sheets of black-painted plywood.

“The Cambridge Public Library is a magnificent twenty-first century building that seamlessly incorporates the original 1888 landmark. The historic stone building and the new glass building stand side by side as a study in contrast, although they are united by materials and colors.’’ The library is at its best in the evening. The new building glows like an enormous lantern. You can see the indoor activity through the transparent façade. There are two skins of glass, with a wide air space between. It’s a green technology, imported from Germany, that maintains thermal comfort, saves energy, and doesn’t interrupt the view.

What Is Gorilla Glass? The allure of Gorilla Glass is no mystery to anyone with a Droid, an iPhone 4, a Galaxy tab or a Dell Adamo. But for everyone else wondering about all the new Gorilla Glass gear at CES, here’s the rundown. Gorilla Glass is, well, glass…You’ll find it in screens, mostly. This includes smartphone screens, tablet screens, laptop screens, and as of this week, touch-table screens and TV screens.…that’s pretty tough to break or scratch… Drop it, smack it, or shoot it with an air rifle, and chances are you won’t break, or even scratch, a piece of Gorilla Glass. Our own Brian Barrett went hands-on with a panel some time ago and came away impressed:

Gorilla Glass is an unscratchable, unshatterable material used as a protective window for your mobile phone, PMP or laptop display. It’s in 65 products already, and I can assure you that the very nice man from Corning is not faking it. Your intrepid reporter also gave this several tries with all his blogger strength and couldn’t make a dent. I was, however, able to scratch the heck out of some polycarbonate. OK, so it’s not literally indestructible, and it’s still quite possible to shatter your iPhone’s screen. But it’s harder than it used to be.

…because it’s treated differently than most other gadget glass.

Speaking to SmartPlanet, Gorilla Glass engineer Dr Donnell Walton explains: When you chemically temper a glass, you immerse it in a salt bath and you stuff larger ions in all the surfaces and put them all under compression. What’s unique about Gorilla Glass is that because of its inherent composition, it can allow those larger ions to penetrate the surface more deeply to increase the compression tolerance and tolerate deeper scratches. The compression pushes a flaw back. It’s harder to break from a deeper scratch. It’s also a bit more expensive than the glass normally used for gadget screens, though given its rapid adoption – it’s used in some 300+ devices at this point – its value as a selling point and feature clearly outweighs its monetary cost.

Leybold Optics will install what it says is the world's largest thin-film coating system for glass production at SAGE Electrochromic's new high-volume manufacturing facility in Faribault, MN. The record-breaking coating line will be more than 150 meters long, contain more than 200 turbomolecular pumps, and feature a new twin sputter deposition system that operates at high substrate temperatures, among other technological breakthroughs.

SAGE will use the system for high-volume production of SageGlass, the world's most energy-efficient window glass. SageGlass is an electronically tintable "dynamic" glass for use in building windows and skylights. The glass can be switched from clear to darkly tinted at the touch of a button, or programmed to respond to changing sunlight and heat conditions. This revolutionary technology significantly reduces energy consumption and associated costs. The production start is planned for late 2012.

Leybold Optics says is proud to be selected for this pioneering project and says the company proves to be the first mover when it comes to the conversion of new technology into industrial production equipment. Leybold Optics says its unique combination of know-how in the fields of display, photovoltaic, and architectural glass coating systems provides Leybold Optics with the ideal skill for this reference installation.

Peter Kuitenbrouwer - Ryerson’s glass atrocity: Ryerson University held a news conference at 10:30 to display details of its new Student Learning Centre, corner of Gould and Yonge streets, but since they have already leaked the details to another newspaper, I feel free to express my view: the “thing” they are proposing to build, for a cool $112-million, looks shockingly suburban and derivative. Rather than try to work with the historic character of Yonge Street and fit into the province’s most storied shopping thoroughfare, Snohetta of Norway and Zeidler of Toronto propose to slam an irregular, iceberg-esque monolith of glass and concrete where Sam the Record Man once stood. Back a few years ago when Ryerson bought Sam’s, Sheldon Levy, the president of Ryerson, promised in a news release that, “we are working closely with the City of Toronto to ensure that the legacy of Sam the Record Man is honoured.” They have not done so.

Researchers develop golden window electrodes for organic solar cells: Researchers at the University of Warwick have developed a gold plated window as the transparent electrode for organic solar cells ("Ultrathin Transparent Au Electrodes for Organic Photovoltaics Fabricated Using a Mixed Mono-Molecular Nucleation Layer"). Contrary to what one might expect, these electrodes have the potential to be relatively cheap since the thickness of gold used is only 8 billionths of a metre. This ultra-low thickness means that even at the current high gold price the cost of the gold needed to fabricate one square metre of this electrode is only around £4.5. It can also be readily recouped from the organic solar cell at the end of its life and since gold is already widely used to form reliable interconnects it is no stranger to the electronics industry.

Organic solar cells have long relied on Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) coated glass as the transparent electrode, although this is largely due to the absence of a suitable alternative. ITO is a complex, unstable material with a high surface roughness and tendency to crack upon bending if supported on a plastic substrate. If that wasn't bad enough one of its key components, indium, is in short supply making it relatively expensive to use.

An ultra-thin film of air-stable metal like gold would offer a viable alternative to ITO, but until now it has not proved possible to deposit a film thin enough to be transparent without being too fragile and electrically resistive to be useful. Now research led by Dr Ross Hatton and Professor Tim Jones in the University of Warwick 's department of Chemistry has developed a rapid method for the preparation of robust, ultra-thin gold films on glass. Importantly this method can be scaled up for large area applications like solar cells and the resulting electrodes are chemically very well-defined.

Dr Hatton says "This new method of creating gold based transparent electrodes is potentially widely applicable for a variety of large area applications, particularly where stable, chemically well-defined, ultra-smooth platform electrodes are required, such as in organic optoelectronics and the emerging fields of nanoelectronics and nanophotonics" The paper documents the team's success in creating this simple, practical and effective method of depositing the films onto glass, and also reports how the optical properties can be fine tuned by perforating the film with tiny circular holes using something as simple as polystyrene balls. The University of Warwick research team has also had some early success in depositing ultra-thin gold films directly on plastic substrates, an important step towards realising the holy grail of truly flexible solar cells. This innovation is set to be exploited by Molecular Solar Ltd, a Warwick spinout company dedicated to commercialising the discoveries of its academic founders in the area of organic solar cells.

Investment in US clean technology highest since 2008: Rising oil prices and increasing investor confidence have encouraged US clean technology market, says report by Cleantech Group. Global investment in US clean technology has reached its highest level since 2008, while investment in UK companies has dropped sharply, quarterly figures show. Increasing investor confidence and rising oil prices have helped investment in North American companies more than double compared with the previous quarter, according to a report by Cleantech Group, an international firm that works to accelerate the development and market adoption of clean technologies.

Sheera Haji, CEO of Cleantech Group, said: "I absolutely think rising oil prices have had some important impacts. We've seen decent uptake in transportation." He added: "We're seeing a good rebound as public markets are doing well, companies are doing well, and investors are raising funds and investing them. We're also seeing a real skew towards bigger deals." While North America flourishes, investment in companies in Europe and Israel dropped by 60% compared with the previous quarter. Investment in British companies has plummeted to its lowest level since 2003, with only nine deals secured all year.

Haji described the period as a "very weak" quarter for the UK. He said: "I have not been following the UK closely, but there's been some uncertainty around what's happening in the UK – around the economic recovery and growth – and that has impacted on the vibrancy of the start-up economy." The news comes a week after a report from the US Pew Environment Group showed that Britain's private investments in green energy projects fell by 70% last year, causing it to fall from third to 13th place in the league of countries developing clean technology.

Haji said Japan's nuclear crisis could have a "pretty significant impact" on the next set of quarterly figures, and that it may boost investment in clean technology and coal. He added: "We think it's a setback for the building of new reactors."

Glass News - The Latest News For Window Cleaners

Whatever they're paying the window cleaner, it isn't enough.

Lloyd’s building, London: Britain’s answer to the Pompidou Centre, the home of venerable insurers Lloyd’s is one of the City of London’s most iconic buildings. Designed by Richard (now Lord) Rogers and completed in 1986, its ‘inside out’ approach was a UK first, as was its use of external glass lifts. It includes an 18th century panelled dining room on the 11th floor, painstakingly transferred from the old Lloyd’s building across the street. We've scoured the globe to find the very best buildings that some lucky souls get to call their 9 to 5. If there are such things as offices you'll never tire of working in, then here they are.

US demand to increase 7.7% annually through 2014: Demand for advanced flat glass products is projected to increase 7.7 percent annually from a weak 2009 base to 723 million square feet in 2014, valued at $6.8 billion. Gains will derive from the recovery of the US economy from the recession, which will spark a rebound in new housing construction and motor vehicle production. Both of these key markets for advanced flat glass contracted sharply from 2007 through 2009, reflecting turmoil in financial markets, the restructuring of the US auto industry and the collapse of the housing market. As the economy in general and the housing and motor vehicle markets in particular recover from these events, demand for advanced flat glass products will benefit.

Safety, security glass to remain dominant segment: Safety and security glass will continue to dominate overall demand in both volume and value terms, with the majority of demand utilized in vehicular markets. Consumption will benefit from rebounding motor vehicle production and the increasing replacement of traditional tempered glass with laminated glass, particularly in sun roofs and side lites. In architectural markets, demand will benefit from strong growth in new housing construction, coupled with expanding use of laminated glass products such as hurricane glass, ballistic glass and burglary resistant glass.

Solar control glass to be fastest growing products: Solar control glass will post the most rapid value gains through 2014, with demand benefiting from growth in new housing construction and expanding use of products designed to improve energy efficiency, such as low-emissivity glass and smart glass products. Supported by government incentives and the promise of lower heating and cooling costs, products such as low-e glass are becoming the standard in insulated window units for both the new construction and replacement markets. Smart glass products, while still largely in the development stage, will post outsized growth as these products begin to enter the market. In vehicular markets, demand will benefit from the increasing use of electrochromic mirrors, which continue to become more advanced multi-purpose display features on a growing number of motor vehicle models.

Heads-up display windshields to pace other types: Other advanced flat glass products include well established products such as ultraclear glass and glass used in furniture and appliance markets, as well as new products, such as self-cleaning glass and heads-up display windshields. The latter will continue to have the greater growth opportunities, albeit from relatively small bases, as these technologies gain acceptance. Heads-up displays will benefit from the increasing sophistication and electronics content of motor vehicle cabins, offering drivers more information and improving vehicle safety. Self-cleaning glass will increase its penetration of architectural markets as more builders and home-owners come to accept the advantages of the technology.

Study coverage: This industry study presents historical demand data (1999, 2004 and 2009) plus forecasts for 2014 and 2019 by product (e.g., safety and security glass, solar control glass) and market (e.g., vehicular, architectural). The study also considers market environment factors, evaluates company market share and profiles industry competitors, including AFG Industries (Asahi Glass), Cardinal Glass, Guardian Industries, PPG Industries and Pilkington.

Blast-Proof Glass Brings Us One Step Closer to Transparisteel: A construction material that's stronger than steel but perfectly transparent is a classic sci-fi invention, and a research team at the University of Missouri is bringing it a little closer to reality with their blast-resistant glass. We already have blast-resistant glass, but it has a serious design flaw – it has to be made extremely thick to be effective. This makes it very heavy and hard to implement, since you can't just slip a five-inch slab of glass into a regular window frame. Missouri professor Sanjeev Khanna and his team, along with a team from the University of Sydney in Australia, is working to create blast-resistant glass that's effective even though it's only a quarter of an inch thick and very light. The project is funded by a Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate grant.

The process of making the glass starts with long glass fibers that are only 15 to 25 micrometers in diameter (smaller than all but the finest human hairs). The fibers are woven into a cloth that is then bonded with liquid plastic resin and adhesive. The plastic/fiber section forms the core of a laminate, sandwiched between two thin sheets of glass. The resulting blast-resistant glass is perfectly transparent, avoiding the greenish tint of current blast-resistant glass thanks to the special formulation of the plastic resin. In testing, a small section of the glass was able to withstand a small explosion (the researchers did not offer specific details on the testing parameters – you can see footage of one test below). Future tests will use larger sections of glass in hopes of making the material commercially available within three years.

Woman walks into glass door, sues store: An Edmonton woman is suing a downtown clothing store for $175,000 after alleging she was severely injured when she walked into a closed sliding glass entrance door. In a statement of claim filed Dec. 15 in Court of Queen's Bench, Nora Stovel alleges she was trying to go into Blu's Womens Wear from the second-floor lobby of Manulife Place, 10180 101 St., when she collided with a clear glass panel of one of the sliding units leading into the store. Stovel claims she suffered "severe" injuries from the Dec. 20, 2008, collision and subsequent fall onto the hard tile floor, including a laceration to the right side of her head that needed several stitches and left a permanent scar. Stovel also claims she suffered contusions to the right side of her face, a right shoulder strain that resulted in bursitis and frozen shoulder syndrome, a fracture of her left femur and multiple contusions. As a result of her alleged injuries, Stovel says she incurred medical expenses for physiotherapy, massage therapy and the costs of a gym membership. She also says she had to pay $13,650 to have a bathroom built on the main floor of her house.

According to the statement of claim - which also names as defendants the store manager and the owners and property managers of the premises - Stovel alleges her collision and fall were caused by the defendants' failure to take reasonable care she would be safe using the premises. Stovel claims that includes failing to ensure the lighting in the store and lobby area was sufficient for members of the public to see the plate glass when the sliding door units were closed and that there were visible markings on the glass at eye level to enhance visibility. She also claims the store and store manager were negligent for allowing the sliding glass doors to be closed when the store's interior lights were still on and customers were still inside and visible to people approaching.

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Student hurt when window at pool breaks: The underwater window that failed was the only window in the pool. There are no district records that indicate the glass was ever replaced. “Our investigation is still in the preliminary stages, but we know that Mr. Fetherston was in the lifeguard chair and the water level in the pool began to recede,” Swartz said. “The students yelled that another student was trapped, or sucked, through the window. There was a great force of water and the other students evacuated the pool.” “There was about a five- or six-foot drop into a mechanical room,” Swartz said. “We shut the mechanics down because of all the electricity and water,” he said. “That is not a good mix and we are now beginning to assess the effects that this incident has had on the mechanics, such as the pumps. We have yet to determine the severity of the damage.” “Never in my wildest dreams did we think this window would break or that there would be an accident,” he said.

Double glazing giant Safestyle UK has released a revolutionary new window that can heat homes with solar energy for free: The company's new Eco Diamond Window allows in a high level of heat from the sun and also claims to reduce the amount of energy lost through the window by 100%. The window, which is A-rated for energy efficiency, is the latest product to be unveiled by Safestyle, the UK's leading independent provider of uPVC windows and doors. The Eco Diamond is filled with Argon gas and utilises ultra-clear glass that lets more sunlight in – helping to warm homes for free.

A Safestyle UK spokesman said: “The Eco Diamond is twice as efficient as standard double glazing and cuts down on the heat lost by 100%. “The outer pane is made from Pilkington's Optiwhite Low Iron Glass, which allows for a higher level of light and solar heat transmission. This allows in more heat from the sun and is known as ‘solar gain'. “It is free energy and will cut down on people's heating bills. It really is just perfect for people struggling in the cold snap and who are thinking of replacing their windows.” The inner pane is made from AGC Planibel A Low Emissivity Glass, which is extremely efficient in cutting down on heat loss.

The Eco Diamond Window also uses a filling of safe and odourless Argon gas between the panes, which prevents the movement of heat and cold through the glass. The British Fenestration Rating Council (BFRC) measures energy efficiency from A to G, with A being the most efficient. Bosses at Safestyle UK have repeated the importance of keeping warm during the cold weather that has taken hold of the country.

The spokesman added: “It is vital to stay warm and people can help to do this by preventing heat escaping from their homes. Our new A-rated window will help to prevent heat loss and will also help to cut down on bills.” Safestyle UK has become the biggest independent provider of uPVC double glazing in the UK, with over 40 branches nationwide. It is also renowned for its cult television adverts starring a host of celebrities and is currently showing a new wave of adverts featuring former Coronation Street star Ken Morley and Jeff “Window Man” Brown.
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Now, a new laser technology can inscribe numbers in glass without cracking, heating or leaving any external marks on the glass. "It's the only technology that can mark glass without damaging it," Physorg.com quoted Jean Michel Mestrez, Managing Director of Trackinside, the Belgian start-up company that developed the technology. It was created for things like etching the surfaces of lenses and mirrors that would then be used in space telescopes and measuring equipment. Because it is so low-impact, the laser does not damage the delicate material. The 'femtosecond laser' works much like the laser used in eye surgery, where it beams energy through the surface of the eye to make incisions deep below.

"Labelling each syringe has other benefits, too. With this technology, you can track medicine from the point of production," said Mestrez. "If you have a number labelled directly after filling up the syringe, you can trace that syringe all the way along, from production to use to disposal." For luxury goods, this new type of numbering is useful not only to track products, but also to protect high-profile brands from counterfeiting. For example, if a beverage is produced for the Asian market, but the bottle shows up in Europe or Africa, the maker can see that a grey market is operating.

New metallic glass is stronger and tougher than steel: The Golden Gate bridge is made out of a relatively low strength steel, so it won’t break when an earthquake rattles the Bay Area. When you have a structure, you tend not to use the higher strength one. As you increase strength, you decrease the toughness. A tough material is less likely to fracture. The stronger a material is, the more likely the structure will break. That is the problem. You can’t win because you want the material to be both things!

But researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and California Institute of Technology have created a metallic glass that can get around that problem. The new metallic glass is stronger and tougher than steel (and any other material known to man). Impressive! Robert Ritchie, a Berkeley materials scientist, said “trying to get high strength and high toughness is very difficult. One of the holy grails is to get both high strength and high toughness [in materials]. We call that damage tolerance.” To make this metallic glass, the researchers used five elements to confuse the material. That way, the material couldn’t flex into automatic memory and form its normal, crystal structure. This is unusual, considering all metals have crystalline structures. Window panes are amorphous and aren’t crystalline in structure. Like glass, the fabricated material was not crystalline.

“We learned to make metals in this amorphous state,” Ritchie said. “There are stronger materials and there may be tougher materials, we know of no other material with the combination [we've made]. Strength and toughness are mutually exclusive, and we’ve achieved it in a material that you wouldn’t expect - in glass. Glass is usually brittle,” Ritchie said. The group from Cal Tech made the material from five or more elements. They melted it and it cooled quickly. The material wasn’t able to crystallize, so it formed an amorphous material. The Cal Tech team cut the material into little rods and sent them to Ritchie’s team at Berkeley to basically destroy the metallic glass. The experiments didn’t involve throwing the metallic glass against the floor though. Instead, Ritchie ran the metallic glass through mechanical testing machines. The machines could barely make the material crack.

In the future, the new material could be used in nuclear pressure vessels because it has the same toughness as the material used today. A better material could help nuclear reactors avoid a catastrophic failure. Let’s remember that the new material was born out of academic curiosity. People have been fascinated with ways of finding materials that have both strength and toughness. Ritchie seems to have actually made a material that lives up to the dream. It will be interesting to see how this material will be used in the future. Also here.

Woman jailed for putting glass in restaurant meals and eating it as part of insurance fraud: A woman has been jailed for four years after admitting she sprinkled shards of glass in her restaurant meals and ate them as part of a lucrative insurance swindle. Mary Evano, 49, claimed $200,000 in compensation after filing the bogus insurance claims. She also incurred more than $100,000 in medical bills after carrying out the dangerous stunts. After confessing to the deceptions, she was jailed in Boston and ordered to pay more than $340,000 in restitution. The offences were also said to have happened between 1997 and 2005, but Mrs Evano remained a fugitive before U.S. Marshalls arrested her earlier this year. Her roofer husband, Ronald, 52, was jailed for five years on similar charges three years ago. They were accused of defrauding restaurants, hotels, grocery stores and insurers as well as doctors and hospitals. Prosecutors said the Evanos deliberately ate the glass in some cases, and at other times they just claimed they found it in the food. They targetted establishments in Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia and Washington DC.

Man Suffers Fatal Accident on His First Day at Work: A Suffolk company has been fined £80,000 after a worker was crushed, while unloading sheets of glass from a delivery lorry. Vitalijus Orlovas, originally from Lithuania had just started his new job for Arken PoP Ltd, based in Newmarket, who specialise in point of purchase displays for the retail sector. Mr. Orlovas was helping to unload glass sheets, each weighing more than 100 kg, from a delivery lorry as the company had ran into difficulties trying to unload the delivery vehicle mechanically. Unfortunately the sheets of glass fell; crushing Mr. Orlovas to death, another worker who had tried to prevent the glass from falling was also pinned beneath the glass sheets by his hand. An investigation by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) revealed that the accident could possibly have been avoided had Arken carried out a proper risk assessment of the hazardous lifting operation.

Green building code from 2011 - DUBAI - The UAE government will introduce a federal level green building code from next year. The minister said that the council of ministers had taken a decision in July regarding the implementation of the code from the beginning of next year. As per the new code, 60 per cent will be the maximum limit for using glass in buildings to restrict solar gain and decrease the demand for internal cooling, he said. “If you have to use more due to certain circumstances, you will have to shade them or face them to north where you don’t have much sunlight,” said Al Maidour. Also here.

SmartGlass International – Leading supplier of switchable glass in the UAE. To meet the rising demand for electronically switchable glass, SmartGlass International has emerged to become the leading supplier of smart glass in the UAE. As one of the UAE’s largest specialist suppliers of electronically switchable smart glass products, SmartGlass International is able to manufacture and supply a multi-purpose building material that can be used in a variety of different contexts for a number of different purposes.

SmartGlass International specializes in two types of electronically switchable glass products, LC SmartGlass and SPD SmartGlass. LC SmartGlass is used for privacy purposes allowing instant privacy at the flick of a switch. Using a minute electrical current, users can immediately switch the LC SmartGlass from clear to private (opaque) and vice versa. LC SmartGlass is easily installed and uses a minute electrical current. Various configurations can be supplied including color tinted, fire rated, double glazed, curved and shaped.

SPD-SmartGlass can be manually or automatically “tuned” to precisely control the amount of light, glare and heat passing through a window. While glass is a favored product for use in building facades; glare, solar heat gain and UV exposure are problematic and can often make the use of glass impractical resulting in the need to invest in expensive solar shading devices. Glass facades using patented SPD light- control technology reduce the need for air conditioning during the summer months and heating during winter. The ability to instantly switch the glass to maximize daylight when it’s really needed and to provide controllable solar shading during peak light conditions is valuable and unique. While 4/5 of the UAE is desert, the region is home to many dynamic world class cities full of architectural innovation. More buildings in more cities throughout the UAE are using innovative smart glass products to improve the lives of visitors and citizens in the region.

Glass Globe doorknob: How to see into a room without opening the door - If you’ve ever wanted to see what’s on the other side of a door without actually opening it and giving yourself away, this may be just the idea for you. ‘A Room in the Glass Globe” doorknob has been designed by Hideyuki Nakayama, according to Vlad Savov over on Engadget, sourced from Spoon & Tamago. If you look at this clever doorknob, in the form of a glass globe as you might expect, before you enter the room you can see what’s going on inside and it works because the globe gives a wide-angle view of the room and does this with the help of another globe on the other side of the door from which it collects and reflects light.

First stones thrown in the 'war of mirrors' - Angry residents living in a complex on Panyu Road in downtown Shanghai are using home-made slings to fire stones at huge mirrors in a bid to end a two-year-long "war of mirrors." Elderly residents complained to Shanghai Daily that the escalation of the dispute was now posing a danger to passers-by who happened to walk into the "battlefield" and other residents' properties were also in the firing line. It is believed that one resident used an air gun in an attack on the offending mirrors.

The dispute began in 2008 when a man installed reflective glass in the windows of his seventh-floor balcony in No. 30 Building. A resident in the No. 24 block opposite, surnamed Liu, said the mirrored glass intruded on his daughter's privacy. If Liu or his neighbors looked out their windows they could see the girl's bedroom in the reflection. After complaints to the neighborhood committee produced no response, Liu retaliated, buying four 1-meter-high mirrors and attaching them to the wall outside his daughter's room. Liu said he wanted residents opposite to experience "life in a mirror" too. This triggered the "mirrors war" as other households joined in.

According to superstition, hanging a mirror can ward off misfortune, as it reflects bad luck and demons back to where they come from. As a result, many households began regarding people in the opposite block as "demons" and soon all the blocks in the complex were festooned with charms including mirrors, scissors and even broomsticks to ward off evil spirits. Neighborhood committee officials trying to reach a solution found that no one was prepared to back down. Now some residents have resorted to firing stones at the mirrors on the seventh floor of No. 24 Building. 

Death of worker killed by glass costs firm $90,000: A North Shore company has been fined tens of thousands of dollars after a staff member was killed by a falling sheet of glass. Jinsong Song, 42, and seven other employees of Sharpeye were unloading 11 sheets of glass from a timber cradle inside a container on April 6. As they were removing one of the sheets, the rest became unstable and a 200kg sheet fell on to Mr Song, severely cutting his face and neck. Four workmates were hurt as they tried to rescue him. Two suffered serious cuts. Sharpeye, which is in the Wairau Valley industrial zone, was yesterday fined $30,000 and ordered to pay reparation of $60,000.

Croatian man builds glass coffin: A 59-year-old Croation man, Giulio Codiglia, has built himself a room with a shrine in his Istria home. He has decorated the walls and furniture with over 4000 photos of friends and family. The man is also a collector of medals, key rings from the former Yugoslavia, police hats from around the world along with military, and postal uniforms. Another item in the room that is worth mentioning is the 6 foot long glass coffin, currently being used as a coffee table. Attached to the coffin is a death certificate, written in Italian, that reads: “Was born to eat and drink, died because he drank too much.” Also, on the handwritten death certificate is the year of his birth 1951 and the year of his death, 2051st. A man with a good sense of humor, Codiglia likes to lay in the coffin when his friends come over, just to have fun with it.

Casement Windows Are Architects’ New Darling: For a long time, mullioned steel casement windows, the gridded kind that swing out like a door, had fallen out of fashion. They leaked badly, and a stiff wind could blow out their panes or knock their hinges askew. Over the years they have been replaced in many buildings by single-pane aluminum casement or double-hung windows.

Part of the reason for the resurgence is that window technology has improved, said Richard Kusyk, the owner of Bright Window Specialists, the New York City installer of Hope’s Windows of Jamestown, N.Y., a well-known name in steel casements. “The old windows were single-pane glass, they were putty-glazed from the exterior, and they had no weather stripping,” Mr. Kusyk said, explaining that if they leaked air it did not much matter because their usual location was a warehouse. But now, he said, “Hope’s has developed ways to make those windows accommodate insulating glass, triple weather stripping and superior finishes that will last a lifetime. They never did any of that stuff in the old days.”

B.C. researchers have discovered how to make glass films that reflect different wavelengths of light - ultra violet, visible and infrared - creating brilliant iridescent colours and traditional transparent glass. They say it is a finding that could help us conserve energy and make our cities more visually intriguing. University of British Columbia chemist Mark MacLachlan says windows could be coated with the glass film so they reflect infrared light, which heats a building and taxes its air conditioning system. Right now, chemicals are added to glass to tint windows and reflect light, but that can leave the interior of a building dark, necessitating the use of artificial lighting.

"And chemicals can bleach in the sunlight, but our materials won't bleach because no chemicals are involved," said MacLachlan. The researchers' procedure makes use of a renewable substance — wood cellulose.In a paper published this month in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, MacLachlan and his team describe how they used nanocrystaline cellulose, the main component of pulp and paper, to create the glass films. It is a multi-step process that begins with a mixture of water, cellulose and silicon, which is the main ingredient in glass. As the solution dries, the cellulose organizes itself into tiny rod-shaped crystals arranged in a spiral pattern. "The way to visualize this is that the rods dry so that in one layer they are all more or less oriented in one direction. Then the next layer is similar, but slightly twisted relative to the first, then the next layer is slightly twisted relative to the second, and so on," MacLachlan said.

The researchers then burned off the cellulose crystals, leaving them with a glass film dotted with tiny holes the same size and organization as the crystals. "Because the holes have the helical structure, the glass reflects light of different wavelengths," said MacLachlan. "We can easily tune the glass to reflect any wavelength from infrared, to visible, to ultraviolet. We can make beautiful thin films of silica that are coloured because of this structure." The glass can be "tuned" to reflect light in much the same way that beetle wings do, producing brilliant jewel-like colours. MacLachlan says that means the glass films could be used to coat walls and as people walk by, they would see different colours as light hits the wall from various angles. Also here.

A 'smart glass' bet: A Faribault company, with government backing, is betting tintable glass will "wow" the construction industry.When librarians arrive at the Century College science library, one of the first decisions of the day is whether to hit an electrical switch. Not for the lights - for the windows. The library in White Bear Lake is partly sheathed in "smart glass" with electronically controlled tinting to reduce harmful sun rays and cut energy use. "If it is a super-bright day, we dim them," said librarian Jane Young. A few minutes after pressing a button, the windows change from clear to tinted blue. "It's really cool."

The glass is manufactured by SAGE Electrochromics Inc., a 100-employee company in Faribault, Minn., that sees bright days ahead for the green technology. Though the market for smart glass remains small, SAGE is investing $135 million to expand its five-year-old Faribault plant. It intends to mass-produce its trademark SageGlass, cut the cost in half and boost sales across the world thanks to a new partnership with an international construction-materials company. The changeable-glass technology relies on coatings that switch to a tinted state under low voltage. The tinting is variable, though it never completely blocks sunlight, so there is always a view outside.

The company has attracted millions in capital from private investors. And it is also enjoys one of Minnesota's most lucrative business-subsidy packages. Government agencies are offering at least $118 million in incentives to boost employment and energy conservation. The technology is seen as a boon to the nation's power grid because it could dramatically reduce air-conditioning needs when electrical demand is highest. "Sage Glass allows us to control the amount of the sun's energy that comes through the glass electronically," said SAGE founder and CEO John Van Dine. "On a bright sunny day we can stop the heat from coming into the building."

The changeable-glass technology relies on coatings that switch to a tinted state under low voltage. The tinting is variable, though it never completely blocks sunlight, so there is always a view outside. Only a few companies in the world make electrochromic glass. SAGE began commercial sales in 2003, and has improved the technology with variable tinting and automated controls. The company recently signed a deal with Saint-Gobain, a glass-and-building-products company based in France, to combine the two companies' electrochromic patents, research, manufacturing and marketing.