Dr. Schenk GmbH – Glasstec Preview 2008

DR. SCHENK’S FOCUS AT GLASSTEC 2008
ON SOLAR GLASS INSPECTION AND
ENHANCED DEFECT CLASSIFICATION FOR FLOAT GLASS

• Dr. Schenk ready for the PV market and new glass processing technologies: Growing focus on structured and unstructured solar glass as well as on coated and laminated glass
• Enhanced defect classification for higher yield in float glass manufacturing: Remarkable evolution as result of two years successfully selling float glass inspection to the industry

Dr. Schenk GmbH based near Munich, Germany is worldwide leading in the development, production and marketing of automated vision and inspection systems for glass as well as for plastic, film, foil and solar panels. At this year’s glasstec, Dr. Schenk will set its emphasis at a new inspection demand in the glass industry: Suppliers for the photovoltaic industry as well as manufacturers of coated and laminated glass experienced an immense growth during the past year. As a consequence, the demand for inspection systems specialized for the requirements of these glass processing technologies rises, too. Among other developments in 2008 Dr. Schenk has launched the following new product enhancements, which will be the focus at this year’s glasstec:

• An advanced inspection and measurement system for glass sheets that are used as substrate for thin film solar modules. Here especially scratches, bubbles and edge defects might have costly consequences if not detected, as e.g. glass breakage in further processing.
• For rolled, structured glass a unique optical set-up specializes on the distinguishing of critical material defects from the glass structure common to the cover glass of silicon solar panels.
• Coated and laminated glass has become more and more important for a growing number of high tech applications, as e.g. in the PV industry (AR, TCO or Molybdenum coatings on solar panels) or for the architectural and automotive industry (low-E coating or lamination for fire protection and safety glass).

The volume growth of glass coatings and laminations as well as the boost in the PV industry has created a business uplift for glass panel inspection systems at Dr. Schenk. However, at the same time, the automated vision systems for float glass have also experienced a remarkable evolution. In close cooperation with business partners and customers the R&D team has developed an enhanced defect classification for float glass. The inspection system GlassInspect.float enables manufacturers to distinguish between glass defects, such as bubbles or stones that can cause problems during further processing, from dust or other “pseudo – defects”. In order to make this distinction, Dr. Schenk makes use of the characteristics of defects versus contaminations. Whereas the optical signal of a non critical contamination consists of its pure core size, a real glass defect occurs with a much larger distortion image. Using the innovative combination of two illuminations the GlassInspect systems deliver pin sharp gray scale images of defect core and its distortion. Furthermore, by this optical concept the size of a defect can be evaluated with highest accuracy. Thus, the boundary between critical defects and noncritical defects can be set with an unreached precision. A number of float glass manufacturers in Europe and Asia have therefore chosen inspection solutions from Dr. Schenk.

Visit Dr. Schenk at glasstec 2008 Hall 12 Booth C25 and get to know the vision system GlassInspect and how it meets the new challenges of quality assurance in the glass industry.