The invention relates to a vacuum glass sealing method and a vacuum glass product processed by this method.

Background Arts:

Since vacuum glass composed by a plurality of glass plates is drawing more attention due to excellent performances of sound insulation, heat insulation and heat preservation, the vacuum glass becomes popular researched project.

The existing sealing methods of vacuum glass are mainly as following:

(1) Use frits with a low melting point to be melted for sealing, wherein the sealing temperature is

400-500 C or so in general, and by means of flame or electrical heating, the frits with the low melting point are melted so as to complete the compound sealing between the glass plates. The glass with the low melting point used in the process is usually PbO-ZnO sealing glass, and such material is not conducive to environmental protection requirements in a long run, as lead is harmful to the environment and human bodies. Meanwhile, equipment and processes for manufacturing the vacuum glass are complicated, and the glass plates after compound sealing also can generate boundary heat stress frequently. Thereby additional proper annealing treatment is required which greatly lowers the production efficiency.

(2) Adopt various plastic or resin materials to carry out the compound sealing between the glass plates. Some patent documents mention that organic glasses such as PC, ABS, LDPE, PVC and the like are used, other materials such as PVB, EVA (EN) and the like used in laminated glass are also mentioned in some patent documents. The processing methods are as follows: place the above materials between two glass plates to be made into prefabricated parts, and then press the prefabricated parts under appropriate conditions. Such process is similar to the process for manufacturing laminated glasses, and can realize the compound sealing between glass plates. However, it is difficult to guarantee the leak tightness at the joints because the gas permeability and moisture permeability of majorities of the plastic and resin materials are far greater than those of glass and majorities of the organic materials are only physically bonded with surfaces of the glass plates; and decreasing sealing strength, interlayer dewing and mildewing of glass will be directly caused in case of permeation of gases (including water vapour). In addition, the aging of the organic material will have a direct influence on the sealing effect and life of the compounded glass plates as time goes on.

In addition, the edges of the glass plates are always rigidly connected with each other to finish the sealing of the edges of the glass plates when the vacuum glass is manufactured by using a plurality of glass plates in the prior art, and the structure is as shown in fig. 1. The vacuum glass has excellent performances of heat insulation and heat preservation, and a relatively large temperature difference may occur easily at the inner and the outer layers of the glass plate in usage so that the glass plate positioned at the high temperature side is expanded and the glass plate positioned at the low temperature side is shrunk; therefore, the vacuum glass easily generates temperature deformation as shown in fig. 2, no matter being used as a glass window or a heat insulation and heat preservation member; however, once the stress due to the deformation at the sealing edge of the glass plate is beyond the bearing limit of the sealing edge, the vacuum glass will be damaged and bring about danger to the place where vacuum glass is used.

Invention Contents:

To avoid the disadvantages existing in the prior art, the invention aims to provide a vacuum glass sealing method with simple and convenient technology and reliable and firm sealing. The vacuum glass sealed by using the method can well adapt to the deformation due to the temperature difference at the inner and the outer layers of the glass plate, thereby preventing from forming overlarge temperature stress at the sealing edge and guaranteeing the use safety of the vacuum glass. The invention simultaneously provides a vacuum glass product processed according to the sealing method.

In order to achieve the above purposes, the vacuum glass sealing method specially comprises the following steps:

1) preparing a metallization paste coating at the surface of a part to be sealed at the edge of the glass plate, wherein the metallization paste is kind of high sintering ;

2) heating the glass plate, wherein the metallization paste coating is sintered to be a metallized layer and then is solidified together with the body of the glass plate;

3) carrying out tempering or semi-tempering or heat strengthening treatment for the glass plate according to the existing technology;

4) using the metal brazing technology, and connecting the metal sealing plates by hermetic welding between the metallized layers of the two glass plates to be sealed so as to realize the hermetic sealing at the edges of the two glass plates.

Further, the sintering temperature of the sintering technology in the step 2) is in the tempering temperature range of the glass plate, and the tempering treatment of the glass plate is finished by quick cooling directly after the glass plate carries out sintering technology treatment.

Further, the sintering temperature of the high temperature type metallization paste is 560 ^° C -700 ^° C Further, the metallization paste coating is prepared on the surface of the glass plate by dip coating, spray coating, screen printing, manual coating or mechanical coating.

Further, the metal material contained in the metallization paste has fine brazing welding performance.

Further, the metallization paste can be Ag metallization paste, Cu-Ag alloy metallization paste, Ni metallization paste, Ni-Ag alloy metallization paste, Au and alloy metallization paste thereof, Zn and alloy metallization paste thereof or Pd and alloy metallization paste thereof.

Further, when in step 4), firstly, a brazing metal foil is arranged between the metallized layer and the metal sealing plate of the glass plate, or a brazing metal is pre-plated on the surface of at least one thereof, and then the subsequent welding is finished according to metal brazing technology.

Further, the brazing metal foil and the brazing metal are made of tin alloy brazing filler metal.

Further, the metal brazing technology is carried out under the protection of inert gases, or carried out in the environment of H ₂ or N ₂ gas, or carried out in vacuum environment.

Further, the metal brazing technology is carried out by locally heating the sealing area, wherein the heating manner comprises laser heating, flame heating, current heating, induction heating or microwave heating.

Further, the brazing temperature of the metal braze is lower than or equal to 350 ^° C .

Further, the metal sealing plate is composed of two metal sheets, wherein the two metal sheets are first alternatively in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer of the two glass plates to be sealed by metal brazing technology or ultrasonic welding technology when the edges of the two glass plates carry out hermetic sealing, and then the two metal sheets are in hermetic welding connection with each other so as to realize the hermetic sealing at the edges of the two glass plates.

Further, after the two metal sheets are respectively guided with the connected glass plates, the two metal sheets are in hermetic welding connection with each other by metal brazing technology or ultrasonic welding technology.

Further, the two metal sheets are guided out from the two sealed glass plates, and the two metal sheets are respectively in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer on the inner surfaces of the two sealed glass plates.

Further, one of the two metal sheets is guided out from the two sealed glass plates and is in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer on the inner surface of one glass plate, and the other metal sheet is in hermetic welding connection with the metallized on the outer surface of the other glass plate.

Further, the two metal sheets are respectively in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer on the outer surfaces of the two sealed glass plates.

Further, the metallized layer is prepared on the edge of the glass plate to be sealed; the metal sealing is composed of a metal sheet, and the metal sheet is respectively in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer on the two glass plates to be sealed by metal brazing technology or ultrasonic welding technology.

Further, the metal sealing plate is composed of a metal sheet with a U-shaped cross section, and two sides of the U-shaped metal sheet are respectively in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer on the two glass plates to be sealed.

Further, the U-shaped metal sheet is positioned between the two glass plates to be sealed, and the sides thereof are in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer by metal brazing technology.

Further, two sides of the U-shaped metal sheet are positioned between the two sealed glass plates and is in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer by metal brazing technology, and the bottom part of the U-shaped cross section of the metal sheet is extended out of the two glass plates.

Further, one side of the U-shaped metal sheet is positioned between the two sealed glass plates and is in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer on the inner surface of one glass plate thereof by metal brazing technology or ultrasonic welding technology, and the other side of the metal sheet is in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer on the outer surface of the glass plate by metal brazing technology or ultrasonic welding technology after the other side of the metal sheet bypasses the edge of the other glass plate.

Further, the edges of the two sealed glass plates are coated with the U-shaped metal sheet, and two sides thereof are respectively in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer on the outer surfaces of the two glass plates by metal brazing technology or ultrasonic welding technology.

A vacuum glass comprises at least two glass plates connected with each other, and the hermetic sealing of the periphery of the vacuum glass is carried out according to the above sealing method.

In the invention, brand-new technology is provided for manufacturing vacuum glass by sintering the metallized layer on the surface of the glass sheet and using the metallized layer and the metal sealing sheet to carry out hermetic sealing of the edge of the glass plate. The method not only has the advantages of firm connection of sealing part, high air tightness, good thermal shock resistance, and the like, but also establishes conditions for the processing of tempering vacuum glass products since relatively low brazing temperature can be used to prevent tempering glass from being annealed. The high temperature sintering type metallization paste is used in the method so that the sintered metallized layer has excellent resistance to high temperature, thus the glass plate after cooled can be heated again till tempering temperature after the metallized layer is sintered so as to finish the tempering treatment of the metallized layer, and the glass plate after sintered still at high temperature (within the range of tempering temperature) can be quickly cooled to finish the tempering treatment of the glass plate after the sintering technology is finished when the metallization paste is used in which the sintering temperature is in the range of tempering temperature of glass plate. The vacuum glass manufactured with this method uses the metal sealing plate in the sealing structure, thus the vacuum glass can well adapt to the temperature deformation due to the temperature difference between two sealed glass plates, thereby preventing from forming overlarge stress at the sealing edge of the vacuum glass and guaranteeing the safety use of vacuum glass.

Brief Description of the Drawings:

Figure 1 is the structure diagram of the existing vacuum glass;

Figure 2 is the schematic diagram when the existing vacuum glass is deformed due to temperature difference of inside and outside in the Fig. 1;

Figure 3 is the schematic diagram after the metallized layer is sintered at the surface of the part to be sealed at the edge of the glass plate;

Figure 4 is the structure diagram of the vacuum glass in the embodiment 1 of the invention;

Figure 5 is the amplifying diagram of the section view of the metal sheet 7 in the embodiment 1;

Figure 6 is the structure diagram of the embodiment 2 in the invention;

Figure 7 is the structure diagram of the embodiment 3 in the invention;

Figure 8 is the structure diagram of the embodiment 4 in the invention;

Figure 9 is the structure diagram of the embodiment 5 in the invention;

Figure 10 is the structure diagram of the embodiment 6 in the invention;

Figure 11 is the structure diagram of the embodiment 7 in the invention;

Figure 12 is the structure diagram of the embodiment 8 in the invention;

Figure 13 is the structure diagram of the embodiment 9 in the invention;

Figure 14 is the structure diagram of the embodiment 10 in the invention;

Figure 15 is the structure diagram of the embodiment 11 in the invention.

In the figures, 1 refers to upper glass plate, 2 refers to lower glass plate, 3 refers to middle support, 4 refers to rigid sealing edge on the existing vacuum glass, 5 refers to vacuum space between two glass plates, 6 refers to metallized layer sintered on the surface of the glass plate, 7 refers to metal sheet, 7a refers to the upper side of the metal sheet 7 with a U-shaped cross section, 7b refers to the lower side of the metal sheet 7 with a U-shaped cross section, 7-1 refers to upper metal sheet, 7-2 refers to lower metal sheet, 8 refers to middle glass plate, and 9 refers to arc connecting section on the metal sheet 7.

Detailed Description:

The invention is further described with reference to the following combined accompanying diagrams.

Taking the embodiment 1 shown in fig. 4 for example, when the vacuum glass is manufactured according to the present invention, the sealing method comprises the following steps: firstly, preparing a metallization paste coating at the surface of a part to be sealed at the edge of the glass plate; then, heating the glass plate, wherein the metallization paste coating is sintered to be a metallized layer 6 and solidified together with the body of the glass plate, and the sintered metallized layer 6 is shown in fig. 3; then, carrying out tempering or semi-tempering or heat strengthening treatment for the glass plate according to the existing technology; then, composing the two glass plates 1, 2 to be sealed as shown in fig. 4, arranging the metal sheet 7 with a U-shaped cross section as shown in fig. 5 between the two metallized layers 6 mutually corresponding to the two glass plates 1 , 2 so that the two sides 7a, 7b of the metal sheet 7 are respectively opposite to the metallized layer 6 on the upper and the lower glass plates and the metal brazing solder is installed between the sides 7a, 7b of the metal sheet 7 and the metallized layers 6; finally, using the metal brazing technology, and connecting the two sides 7a, 7b of the metal sheet 7 with the corresponding metallized layers 6 by hermetic welding so as to realize the hermetic sealing at the edges of the two glass plates 1, 2. In the fig, 2, reference number 3 is the middle support installed between the two glass plates 1, 2, and reference number 5 is the vacuum space formed between the two glass plates 1, 2 after sealed.

The metallization paste coating can be prepared on the surface of the glass plate by dip coating, spray coating, screen printing, manual coating or mechanical coating and the like.

When the metallization paste coating is sintered, the sintering can be finished by heating the glass plate completely and also can be finished by locally heating the coating part, wherein the heating manner can be laser heating, flame heating, current heating, induction heating or microwave heating, and the like.

When the metal brazing solder is installed between the sides 7a, 7b of the metal sheet 7 and the metallized layers 6, the brazing solder can be processed into a metal foil and then the metal foil is arranged between the metal sheet 7 and the metallized layer 6, and also the brazing solder is metallically pre-plated on the sides 7a, 7b of the metal sheet, and/or pre-plated on the surface of the metallized layer 6, and then the subsequent welding is finished according to the metal brazing technology. Tin alloy solder is used as brazing solder, and the advantage is that a relatively low welding temperature (generally no more than 250 Celsius) can be used when welding, thereby being capable of preventing the braze welding temperature from influencing the performance of glass plate. Especially for the processing of tempered composite glass, the glass plate is under tempering state before braze welding, thus the braze welding temperature is controlled to be no more than 350 Celsius so as to be capable of preventing the tempered glass plate from being annealed in braze welding process. Similarly, for the glass plate in semi-tempering state or after heat strengthening treatment before braze welding, the braze welding temperature is controlled to be no more than 350 Celsius so as to be capable of preventing the tempered glass plate from being annealed in braze welding process.

The braze welding process can be carried out under the protection of inert gases, or carried out in the environment of H ₂ gas or N ₂ gas, or carried out in vacuum environment, thereby being beneficial to improving the welding quality of braze welding.

The metal sheet 7 is in welding connection with the metallized layer 6 by metal brazing technology, thus the metal sheet 7 and the metallized layer 6 are made of metal material suitable for braze welding.

The metal brazing technology can use proper heating manners such as induction heating, laser heating, microwave heating, and the like.

Specially, the sealing part of the vacuum glass is positioned at the periphery of the glass plate and is in the shape of a closed ring, thus the space between the two glass plates in the sealing part is vacuumized to prepare the tempering vacuum glass. In order to form vacuum space between the upper and the lower glass plates, bleeding holes are preset on the upper or lower glass plate and then vacuumizing is carried out after the braze welding of the metallized layer, and also the vacuum space can be formed by doing braze welding for the metallized layer in the vacuum room.

Since the metallized layer needs to be sintered on the surface of the glass plate, and the metallized layers on the two glass plates are welded together with the metal sealing sheet (metal sheet 7) so as to realize the hermetic sealing at the edges of the two glass plates; moreover, in order to guarantee the safety use of the vacuum glass product, the tempering or semi-tempering or heat strengthening treatment for the glass plate is required after the metallized layer is sintered; therefore, in order to guarantee enough bonding strength between the metallized layer and the glass plate and ensure that the metallized layer and the metal sealing sheet can be reliably welded together, the metallization paste used should have excellent characteristic of high temperature resistance, wherein the metal material contained should have excellent weldability, and the metallization paste meeting such requirement is kind of high temperature sintering and the sintering temperature is 560-700 Celsius, comprising: Ag metallization paste, Cu-Ag alloy metallization paste, Ni metallization paste, Ni-Ag alloy metallization paste, Au and alloy metallization paste thereof, Zn and alloy metallization paste thereof or Pd and alloy metallization paste thereof, and the like.

When the vacuum glass is manufactured by using the method of the present invention, the high temperature sintering type metallization paste that the sintering temperature is within the range of tempering temperature of glass plate can be used, thus, after the sintering technology is finished , the tempering treatment of the glass plate can be finished directly by quick cooling.

Of course, the glass plate after cooled can be heated again till tempering temperature after the sintering technology is finished, and then quick cooling is carried out to finish the tempering treatment of the glass plate.

Similarly, when the semi-tempering or heat strengthening composite glass is manufactured, the semi-tempering or heat strengthening treatment of the glass plate can be finished directly by cooling after the sintering technology is finished, and the glass plate also can be heated and cooled according to the prior art after the sintering technology so as to finish the semi-tempering or heat strengthening treatment of the glass plate.

The embodiment 2 of the invention is as shown in fig. 6, in the embodiment, the two sides 7a, 7b of the metal sheet with a U-shaped cross section are positioned between the upper and the lower glass plate sealed, and are respectively in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer 6 of the upper and the lower glass plates by metal brazing technology, and the bottom of the U-shaped cross section of the metal sheet 7 is partially extended outside the two glass plates. Compared with the embodiment 1 in the fig. 4, the metal sheet 7 in the embodiment allows big margin for deformation, and can adapt to larger temperature deformation between two glass plates.

In the embodiment 3 as shown in fig. 7, the edges of the upper and the lower glass plates sealed are covered with the metal sheet 7 with a U-shaped cross section, and the two sides 7a, 7b of the metal sheet 7 are respectively in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer 6 on the outer surfaces of the two glass plates 1, 2.

In the embodiment 4 as shown in fig. 8, one side of the metal sheet 7 with a U-shaped cross section is positioned between the two sealed glass plate and is in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer 6 on the inner surface of the lower glass plate, and the other side of the metal sheet 7 is in hermetic welding connection with the metallized layer 6 on the outer surface of the upper glass plate after round the edge of the upper glass plate.

Specially, when the vacuum glass as shown in fig. 7 and fig. 8 is manufactured, the two sides of the metal sheet 7 and the metallized layer 6 can be in hermetic welding connection with each other by metal brazing technology, and also can be in hermetic welding connection with each other by ultrasonic welding technology.

The vacuum glass in the embodiment as shown in fig. 4 to fig. 8 is formed by composing two glass plates, and the vacuum glass containing three or more than three glass plates also can be manufactured by using the metal sheet 7 with a U-shaped cross section as a metal sealing plate.

In the embodiment as shown in fig. 9, the vacuum glass is formed by composing three glass plates; the difference to the vacuum glass composed by two glass plates is that the two side surfaces of the glass plate 8 arranged in the middle are sintered with metallized layers 6 so that the metal sheet 7 with a U-shaped cross section is respectively hermetically sealed with the upper and the lower glass plates.

The metal sealing plate used in the sealing method can be composed of one metal sheet, and also can be composed of two metal sheets.

When the metal sheet is composed of two metal sheets, the sealing steps are as follows:

Taking the embodiment 6 as shown in fig. 10 as an example, firstly, as mentioned previously, sintering the metallized layer 6 as shown in fig. 3 bonded with the glass plate on the surface to be sealed at the edge of the glass plate; then, hermetically welding and connecting the upper and the lower metal sheets 7-1, 7-2 with the metallized layers 6 of the upper and the lower glass plates respectively, and guiding the metal sheets 7-1, 7-2 out of the glass plates connected thereof; finally, composing the two glass plates 1, 2 as shown in fig. 10, and mutually hermetically welding and connecting the parts of the two metal sheets 7-1, 7-2 extended outside the two glass plates so as to realize the hermetic sealing at the edges of the two glass plates 1, 2.

The metal sheets 7-1, 7-2 and the metallized layer 6 of the glass plates 1, 2 can be hermetically sealed and connected with each other by metal brazing technology, and also can be hermetically sealed and connected with each other by ultrasonic welding technology.

For the connection between the parts of the two metal sheets 7-1, 7-2 extended out of the glass plate, both two can be hermetically welded and connected with each other by metal brazing technology or ultrasonic welding technology or melting technology.

The embodiment 7 is as shown in fig. 11, compared with the embodiment 6, the metal sheet 7-2 in the embodiment 7 is guided out between the two glass plates and is in hermetic sealing connection with the metallized layer on the inner surface of the lower glass plate, and the metal sheet 7-1 is in hermetic sealing connection with the metallized layer on the outer surface of the upper glass plate. The embodiment 8 is as shown in fig. 12, in the embodiment, the two metal sheets 7-1, 7-2 are respectively in hermetic sealing connection with the metallized layer 6 on the outer surfaces of the two glass plates.

The embodiment 9 is as shown in fig. 13, and the vacuum glass in the embodiment is formed by composing three glass plates; as mentioned previously, the upper and the lower surfaces of the glass plate 8 positioned in the middle are sintered with the metallized layer 6 so that the metal sheets 7-1, 7-2 are respectively in hermetically sealed with the upper and the lower glass plates.

The embodiment 10 is as shown in fig. 14, as a special mode of implement, in the embodiment, the metallized layer 6 is sintered on the edges of the glass plates 1, 2, and the edges of the two glass plates 1, 2 are sealed through a metal sheet 7, wherein the metal sheet 7 is respectively in hermetic sealing connection with the metallized layer on the edges of the two glass plates.

In order that the metal sheet 7 can adapt to relatively large extensional deformation due to temperature difference at the edge of the inner and the outer glass plates, an arc connecting section 9 is installed at the middle part of the metal sheet 7 in the embodiment 10, just as the embodiment 11 shown in fig. 15.

The embodiment as shown in fig. 14 and fig. 15 has simple structure and convenience for production, and is especially suitable for relatively thicker glass plates.

The above examples are just used for describing the invention, and the mode of execution is not limited to these examples, and various specific modes of execution according with the thought of the invention done by technical staff in the filed are all within the protection range of the invention.