Intermolecular, Inc. has signed a multi-year collaborative development program (CDP) and technology licensing agreement with Guardian Industries Corp. The partnership is intended to develop and commercialize a set of advanced glass coatings, many of which will be related to energy generation or energy efficiency in buildings. Target applications include both sputtered coatings to be developed with Intermolecular’s Tempus™ P-30 combinatorial physical vapor deposition platform, and liquid coatings to be developed with Intermolecular’s Tempus F-10 and F-20 wet workflows.

Glass coatings currently used to reduce energy consumption in buildings already represent a multi-billion-dollar global market with significant room for further growth. Improving the performance and reducing the costs of these products will be a key focus of the development partnership. Residential and commercial glass facades have a major impact on energy used for heating and cooling, which together account for 4060%? of all energy consumed in U.S. buildings, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

“Glass was one of mankind’s first breakthroughs in materials science, and it has undergone tremendous development over its 5000-year history,” said Scott Thomsen, Guardian’s chief technology officer and group vice president for Glass in North America. “Through our work with Intermolecular, we hope to take materials innovation in glassmaking to an entirely new level. Intermolecular’s High Productivity Combinatorial™ approach to R&D allows us to comprehensively and efficiently explore the periodic table of elements, and to quickly develop and commercialize high-performance coatings for a variety of high-growth applications. Glass coatings still have enormous potential for innovation. Working with Intermolecular will allow us to extend our technical leadership, improve the performance of our existing products, and accelerate new product development with lower cost and risk.”

Technologists from Guardian’s Science & Technology Center and Intermolecular will collaborate on multiple product development projects simultaneously, with Guardian team members spending significant time at Intermolecular’s development facilities in San Jose, Calif. For more information visit www.guardian.com or www.intermolecular.com.