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.
