Where tomorrow’s glass products are developed. Mainly for architectural applications and fabrication processes. Research themes include thermal and acoustic comfort, aesthetics, safety, fire resistance, connectivity of touchscreens, and more. Components of assemblies are also assessed here (adhesives, spacers, interlayers, inserts, etc).

Skills

• Chemistry (mineral and organic)
• Mechanics
• Process engineering
• Durability assessment

The overall surface specialist : adding surface treatments to glass for improved optical, energy or aesthetic properties via 3 processes. To reinforce the insulation and/or solar control properties of glass, coatings are applied onto glass via Physical Vapour Deposition or Chemical Vapour Deposition. Wet coating is used in the development of painted glass, mirrors for domestic use and solar power concentrators, glass texturation for optical and tactile properties of screens.

Skills

• Physics
• Chemistry with a focus on surface characterisation
• Optics
• Durability assessment
• Process engineering

Driven to design, construct and install machines, production lines, or entire factories for glass production or processing. This is done in three main ways: the construction, adaptation and maintenance of the group’s industrial apparatus, technical support for factories and support for research projects. Clients of this department are generally internal to AGC Glass Europe. But the expertise of our engineers also leads them to take charge of projects across the whole AGC Group, and even externally.

Skills

• Engineering
• Mechanics, Thermodynamics
• Electricity
• Chemistry

Adding electrical and electronic features to glass is our challenge. This has already led to solutions such as:

• Electro-luminescent glass incorporating individually addressable LEDs capable of broadcasting animated images
• BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaics) glass incorporating photovoltaic cells for electricity production
• Glass with variable light transmission, switching from clear to dark on demand
• The windshield that projects a virtual image containing important road information.

Skills

• Electronics
• Optics
• Chemistry
• Durability assessment

Our focus is to design, test and validate antennas embedded in glass assemblies for use in automotive and building. To optimally test connectivity, AGC has its own infrastructure, including two anechoic chambers. These chambers are available for other industries’ use. The advent of 5G technology and the autonomous car, hungry for connectivity, will further test the ability of glass as a communication medium.

Skills

• Electronics
• Telecommunication
• Hardware and software design

For both research and production, its focus is to support project developments, quality improvements and problem solving through accurate analytical capabilities. The department collaborates with external scientific bodies, such as research centres and universities all around the world.

Skills

• Chemistry (organic and mineral)
• Physics / Optics
• Geology

The Automotive Research department focuses on the development of new glass products for the automotive industry. It relies on intensive collaboration with the R&D team in Japan. The department is active in two locations: the Technovation Centre in Gosselies (Belgium) where most of the product development is done, and Aniche plant (France) for the preindustrialisation stage.

Skills

• Chemistry
• Mechanics
• Electronics
• Process engineering
• Durability assessment

The Intellectual Property department protects one of society’s most valuable assets: Intellectual Property. This includes patents, trademarks, domain names, designs, and copyrights. IP is essential to prevent counterfeiting. 

Managing intellectual property is done mainly by patent attorneys: scientists trained in intellectual property law.

The department supports the activities of the group in achieving the goals of our environmental policy and ensures that these activities comply with environmental regulations. This mission applies to both processes and products. It assists in resolving environmental issues and also evaluates the impact of future European legislation on AGC’s activities.

The department has an integrated approach based on 4 tools:

• ISO 14001 certification proving that factories are committed to continuous improvement of their environmental performance;
• Cradle-to-Cradle green certification (C2C) showing that products have a low impact on the environment;
• Product lifecycle analysis, demonstrating the environmental quality of the product throughout its life cycle: from concept to end of life;
• Carbon footprint monitoring, showing that for every tonne of CO₂ produced by AGC’s activities, eleven tonnes are avoided by the use of its glass products.

Sustainability & product stewardship is handled mainly by environmental engineers and engineers specialized in product stewardship.