Decorative coatings on glass

Hydrofluoric acid is used to etch decorative designs on glass. Beeswax is coated on the glass and the design is drawn in the wax with a metal stylus. When the glass is dipped into hydrofluoric acid solution, the acid etches the glass in the grooves left by the stylus. 

Figure 1. Top (left) A superhydrophobic and transparent piece of glass (150 mm x 100 mm x 1 mm) coated with silicone nanofilaments and decorated with colored water drops. Top (right) Electron mi-croscopy image of the coating on glass (scale bar indicates 200 nm). Bottom Transmission spectrum of a glass shde coated on both sides (-) compared to an nncoated slide (.).

Ice Colour. A relatively coarse (100 mesh) flux used to give a decorative effect on glass-ware. The surface to be decorated is coated with a tacky oil. The flux is then applied and the ware is fired at a low temperature so that the grains of flux remain discrete. 

Figure 4.20 Decorative hybrid coatings are increasingly used on glass surfaces.

The name fine ceramics is based on the grain size distribution of the hard components in the ceramic mass. This rather differs from the distribution as it is seen in the ceramic branch of industry which produces for instance bricks, the coarse ceramic industry. Another difference is that all fine ceramic products are provided with a protective and in some cases also decorative coating, a so-called glaze. In this section much attention will be paid to glazes because this technique is rather unique for fine ceramics and because it offers the possibility to explore the subject glass and some important physical and chemical properties of materials. 

Coatings on various glasses are made to produce controlled special variations of their optical, electrical, chemical and mechanical properties. The glass to be coated may have two different functions it can be an active element (e.g. a lens) or a passive element (e.g. a substrate for an interference filter). The deposited Films may be either functional or decorative in their technical applications. 

The described decorative coatings show excellent adhesion on fused silica, boron silicate (Borofloat) and float glass. Stability tests have been performed with the PbO-Si02 coatings. No change in the absorbance spectra (difference in transmittance <1 were obtained after 8 days at 500 °C, 14 days ofsuntest an 12 days of climate test. The scratch resistance... 

Sputter deposition is widely used to deposit thin film metallization on semiconductor material, coatings on architectural glass, and reflective coatings on compact discs (CDs), and for magnetic films, dry film lubricants, hard coatings (tools, engine parts), and decorative... 

---