Welding metal to glass

[Kent]

https://www.hw.ac.uk/about/news/2019/welding-breakthrough-could-transform.htm

 

[fizzy]

I saw this yesterday but forgot to post.
Should have lots of applications especially in the electronics industry.
People seem to forget Britain still has a big engineering/manufacturing sector.

 

[ibrooks]

Wonder how long till the manufacturers start welding the windscreen into new cars meaning a broken screen is new car time?

 

[Hitch]

I've managed to get metal to stick to glass once or twice

 

[voipio]

Light bulb, reed switch, and thermionic valve manufacturers have been making gas tight seals for years. The main requirements are that the glass wets the metal, and the coefficients of thermal expansion are matched. Not sure if the joins are as strong as the pulsed laser method might be, but wetting implies adhesive forces.

 

[pedrobedro]

Wonder how long till the manufacturers start welding the windscreen into new cars meaning a broken screen is new car time?

Why would they do that ? You'd need to do front and rear screens and still need separate glass for the doors and it would be of no benefit to the manufacturing process.

 

[Tom O]

Wonder how long till the manufacturers start welding the windscreen into new cars meaning a broken screen is new car time?

So a 2 foot weld in the windshield from a rock chip?

 

[Kent]

I've managed to get metal to stick to glass once or twice

Grinding sparks n spatter don't count lol

 

[Wightsparks]

I can see us in 10 years time .... "anyone tested the laser glass welder from Lidl's yet?"

 

[ibrooks]

Why would they do that ? You'd need to do front and rear screens and still need separate glass for the doors and it would be of no benefit to the manufacturing process.

Same reason that they've done a hundred and one other damn silly things with cars that supposedly solve problems that didn't really exist. It's only the incredibly naive who don't see that in reality they are trying to make them impossible for anyone but the manufacturer to maintain and as a result bring cars closer and closer to being disposable at every iteration.

 

[jimbo84]

“The process relies on the incredibly short pulses from the laser. These pulses last only a few picoseconds - a picosecond to a second is like a second compared to 30,000 years.”

That’s what you might describe as quick.

 

[bigegg]

That’s what you might describe as quick.

A pico secend to a second is like an afternoon in machine mart vs an afternoon in Ikea

 

[brightspark]

I've managed to get metal to stick to glass once or twice

-grinding near windscreens