An insulating glass unit is provided. The insulating glass unit comprises two glass panes spaced apart by a transparent spacer material adherent to the glass panes, e.g. a silicone hot melt material. Optionally, an inert or heavy gas is trapped within the unit. The insulating glass unit further comprises a layer of a transparent silicone elastomer located at the periphery of the unit between edge portions of the glass panes and in contact with external surfaces of the spacer. Processes for making the insulating glass unit are also described herein.

Provided is a vacuum insulation glass panel assembly manufacturing method and apparatus. The vacuum insulation glass panel assembly manufacturing method includes an edge sealing step of sealing an edge of a glass panel assembly of glass panels spaced apart at a predetermined interval, and an exhaust port sealing step of causing a lid member to seal an exhaust port of the glass panel assembly formed so as to communicate with a space between the glass panels whose edges are sealed. A glass solder having a high melting point is used in the edge sealing step, and a glass solder having a low melting point is used in the exhaust port sealing step. A specially designed lid member closing device is used for exhaust port sealing.

An insulating glazing unit having a first pane, a second pane, an outer pane interspace, an inner pane interspace, and a spacer is described. The spacer has a glazing interior surface, a first pane contact surface, and a second pane contact surface, a plastic profile, a primary sealing means, and a main member. The main member contains a sealing material containing a drying material. The plastic profile separates the outer pane interspace from the inner pane interspace. The main member is arranged in the outer pane interspace adjacent the plastic profile and the primary sealing means is arranged in the outer pane interspace adjacent the main member.

An insulating glazing unit having a first pane, a second pane, a third pane arranged between the first pane and the second pane, an outer pane interspace, an inner pane interspace, and a spacer is described. The spacer having a plastic profile with a first glazing interior surface and a second glazing interior surface, a first pane contact surface, a second pane contact surface, a primary sealing means, and a main member containing a sealing material and a drying material. The plastic profile includes a groove, into which the third pane is inserted and which runs parallel to the first pane contact surface and to the second pane contact surface. The plastic profile separates the outer pane interspace from the inner pane interspace. The main member is arranged in the outer pane interspace between the plastic profile and the primary sealing means, the main member being adjacent the plastic profile and the primary sealing means.

A method of adhering a substantially cured or fully cured silicone based material to a substrate surface is provided. The silicone based material is obtained by curing a condensation curable composition. The condensation curable composition comprises: (I) at least one condensation curable silyl terminated polymer having at least one hydrolysable and/or hydroxyl functional group(s) per molecule; (II) a cross-linker selected from the group of silanes having at least two hydrolysable groups per molecule; and/or silyl functional molecules having at least two silyl groups, each silyl group containing at least one hydrolysable group; and (III) a condensation catalyst selected from the group of titanates and zirconates. The method includes applying a reactive interlayer to the substrate surface and applying pressure to sandwich the reactive interlayer between a surface of the silicone based material and the substrate surface, thereby causing chemical bonding of the silicone based material to the substrate.

A spacer applicator assembly has tooling with a plurality of retention devices. An actuator is coupled to the tooling, where the actuator is adapted to continuously rotate the tooling about an axis in a first direction and the tooling is adapted to move in a direction that is generally parallel to the axis.

An insulated glass assembly line generally includes a first and second automated lite picker, a washer, a vertical gas filling and wetting station, a robot, and an applicator station.

A method for manufacturing a plurality of vacuum insulating glass (VIG) units, wherein the method comprises providing a plurality of first glass panes, applying a soldering material arranged for subsequent connection with a second glass pane to provide a seal between an outside of the VIG unit and an inside void of the VIG unit, moving the first glass panes comprising the soldering material into a treatment compartment, wherein the treatment compartment is pre-heated, drying the soldering material in a heating step by evaporating solvent, wherein the heating is forced convection heating, moving the first glass panes to a cooling compartment, cooling first glass panes and the soldering material thereon in a cooling step, wherein the cooling is by forced convection cooling, moving the first glass panes from the cooling compartment, and subsequently connecting the first glass panes to second glass panes using the dried soldering material.

A strand of sealing compound is expelled from a nozzle into an edge joint of an insulating glass element to form around it a contiguous sealing compound bead. The sealing compound bead is formed discontinuously from several segments. At least one first segment is formed by the relative movement in a first circumferential direction of the insulating glass element, and at least one second segment is formed by the relative movement in a second, opposite circumferential direction. Each connection of segments of the sealing compound bead which is situated on a longitudinal side section of the circumference of the insulating glass element is formed such that the strand of the sealing compound is applied in the region of the end of a sealing compound bead already situated in the edge joint and is formed by the relative movement away from the end.

In order to produce sharp corners in edge regions (2) of a strand (1) of deformable material which is applied to a glass pane, the strand (1) forming a spacer in the insulating glass, a tool (5) is forced against the outer corner (3) and a tool (6) against the inner corner (4). The tools (5, 6) have active portions (7, 8) which correspond to the shape of the outer corner (3) and to the shape of the inner corner (4).