Flabeg

Flabeg is a company in glass processing. According to the company it controls all processes of glass. Bending and coating among the core competencies of the company.

Business

In the finishing of glass, especially in the production of exterior mirrors ( Automotive), Flabeg is the world leader. In the production of solar mirrors for solar thermal power plants, the company is a world leader even in 30 years. With 40 patents Flabeg invests approximately 2 million euros in research and development and achieved with 1.800 employees worldwide group turnover of 170 million euros (2009/ 2010), of which 90 % abroad.

Coating

The development of thin film technologies is one of the focal points of the FLABEG research. Process technology, the company works with methods of physical vapor deposition ( engl. Physical Vapour Deposition, PVD short ). This refers to a group of coating methods in a high vacuum for producing thin layers in the nanometer range. Flabeg uses the following PVD processes:

• Electron beam ( electron beam evaporation )
• Sputtering ( sputter deposition, sputtering )

As well as reactive variants of these processes.

Electron beam evaporation

In this coating process, the crucibles located in granular coating material is vaporized by bombardment with high-energy focused electron beam. The vaporized material expands in a steam jet clavate and condenses on the glass substrates located above the crucible down. There, the layer formation takes place by condensation. The use of rotatable multi-hole pot, which can be equipped with different coating materials to enable the coating of multilayers in a single coating cycle. The layer structure can be controlled by the selected parameters and the coating on the substrate temperature. With the exact in-situ control of the coating process, for example switching off of the electron gun, after reaching the required transmission value, high-precision optical functional coatings such as, for example, beam splitters are produced with different transmission and reflection values ​​: a key advantage of coating by means of electron beam evaporation. FLABEG operates the electron in batch mode. In addition to metals and oxides in a reactive atmosphere also fluorides and sulfides can be steamed.

Magnetron sputtering

The principle of magnetron sputtering is based on a continuous argon gas discharge plasma. The plasma is ignited by a high voltage of up to 1000 V at negative pressure. The attached to the magnetron target material is sputtered by bombardment with argon ions and separates as a thin, uniform and compact layer on the glass surface. For non- reactive sputtering processes, such as metal layers, the sputtered cathode material placed directly onto the glass surface, while it reacts during reactive sputtering of oxides or nitrides with reactive gases on the glass surface prior to deposition.

Doppelmagnetrons

Reactive and non-reactive sputtering can be applied in a single coating operation. Through the use of Doppelmagnetrons is highly insulating and highly resistant silicon oxide films can be prepared as a base material for optical functional layers such as anti-reflective systems. The anti-reflective coating so obtained is> 99 %. Typical applications for anti-reflective glass in the automotive sector are glass covers for valves and instrument clusters, like the reflection-free view of Autoimstrumente, such as speedometer grant ( Flabeg RControl ®). Other applications include covers for screens, displays, etc. And absorbed. Museum glass ( Flabeg ARTControl ®), anti-reflective glass for high-quality works of art. For the latter application, a UV protection layer applied as a further function.

Hot and cold processes in coating technology

The sputtering of Flabeg is equally suitable for hot and cold processes, ie Coating processes in which the glass is heated to a temperature of up to 300 C, and coating operations of unheated glass. FLABEG sputters all relevant materials:

• Metallic coatings
• Highly transparent oxide layers
• Nitride layers
• Mixtures of defined proportions of oxygen and nitrogen,
• Transparent conductive indium tin oxide coatings

Be coated are maximum dimensions of 2.70 mx glass 1,80 m.

Turn

In general, the glass processing are two bending methods: The sinking and the press bending.

Press bending

A revolving furnace, the glass is heated to a temperature of about 620 ° C before it is molded with a press die

Sag-bending

In a continuous furnace, the glass is brought to temperatures of about 650 ° C. The bending of the glass in the appropriate shape is effected solely by the force of gravity of the glass. With the precision bending of exterior mirror glasses of cars and commercial vehicles were the so-called. " Blind spots " be eliminated: a crucial contribution to road safety. Even when applying solar mirrors the precision bending is an important function and quality parameters. In a world first Flabeg started in the 70's first activities in this area. The first solar thermal power plants ( SEGS I- IX), which were built in the 1980s in the Mojave Desert in California are equipped with these mirrors and until now in commercial operation.

Parabolic trough power plants

The collectors consist of curved mirrors with a parabolic cross section. They are uniaxial track the sun from east to west. In the focal line of the mirror, an absorber tube, on which the sunlight is concentrated runs. In this pipe circulated as a working fluid, a heat transfer fluid. The sunlight is concentrated more than 80 -fold and thus heats the fluid to about 400 ° C. This thermal energy is converted in a downstream boiler via conventional turbine and generator into electrical power. In order to achieve high efficiencies at the operating temperatures, the reflector with geometric precision and resistance to the incident solar radiation must reflect effective against all emerging wind loads. Precision and optical properties of the collector, are important factors regarding the performance of the solar power plant. Differs for example, the shape of the mirror from the optimum, resulting in the loss of the concentrated radiation.

Types of power plants

Flabeg provides solar mirrors for solar thermal power plants ( both parabolic trough and Fresnel collector systems ), solar towers ( heliostats ) - and solar - Stirling systems.

The company is independent of commercial interests in eleven locations represented in Europe, North America, South America and Asia. Flabeg organizes its activities on the Flabeg Holding GmbH, headquartered in Nuremberg. The company's roots date back to 1882.

History

Reestablishment of Further glassworks by the brothers Alois and Eduard copper and their brother Sigmund Glaser with three Spiegelglasöfen.

Emergence of the " mirror glass factories Bechmann - copper AG " by merging the glassworks Furth im Wald and the company Bechmann with the administrative center in Fürth / Bavaria.

The name "Bavarian mirror glass factories" is changed to " Mirror Glass Union AG " based in Fürth / Bavaria.

The first continuous mirror coating band in Europe is put into operation.

Change of name to " Union Glas AG ". The German firm Libbey -Owens - society for mechanical glass production ( Delog ) is the main shareholder.

Delog company takes over the " Union Glas AG " as a subsidiary and renamed the " Union Glas GmbH " around.

The company Delog in Gelsenkirchen and Detag in Fürth / Bavaria merge to form flat glass AG, headquartered in Gelsenkirchen.

Purchase of the company Schulze in Herford by the " Union Glas GmbH ". Merger of the three most important companies in the flat glass processing industry in the Federal Republic of Germany: Union Glas GmbH ( Furth im Wald ), West German mirror factories GmbH (transmit ) and Flabeg GmbH ( Fürth ). It is renamed to " mirror Flabeg Union GmbH ", the company is a subsidiary of " flat glass AG ".

Changing the company name Flabeg GmbH.

Pilkington takes over the " flat glass AG "; so is Flabeg GmbH also a member of the Pilkington Group.

• 2000

FLABEG dissolves through a management buy -out from the Pilkington Group and is used to separate Flabeg GmbH & Co. KG.

• 2008

Change the corporate form in Flabeg GmbH

• 2009

Plant opening of FLABEG Solar U.S. Corporation in Pittsburgh (USA ) for the production of solar mirrors for all CSP applications ( solar towers, solar Stirling, parabolic trough ) Additional expansion of capacities for solar mirrors in Europe.

• 2010

Flabeg expanding its competence in terms of engineering services in parabolic trough. A team of engineers developed since then a new solar collector with the name " Ultimate Trough "