Feasibility of bent glasses with small bending radii

In the field of architecture, the use of glass plays a significant role. There exists a high demand for curved or flat but structured glass, or glass with features such as decorative elements, functions for power generation or optical applications. Of particular interest are glass sheets with small curvature structures with bending radii smaller than 10 mm. Fraunhofer IWM has a special glass bending furnace with a laser which is used for local heating the glass. There also exists an advanced material model and a detailed description of the thermal conductance and temperature distribution for process control by numerical simulation. First demonstrators were formed and demonstrate the possibilities for the use in modern facades.