A glass panel unit includes a first panel, a second panel, a frame body and a reduced pressure space. The reduced pressure space is surrounded with the first panel, the second panel and the frame body other than an exhaust path capable of exhausting gas to an outside, and sealed in a reduced pressure state. In a state where the inner space has been formed, the seal includes a protruding portion positioned outside of edges of a first surface of a first substrate and a second surface of a second substrate. The protruding portion has a length, along the thickness directions of the first substrate and the second substrate, longer than a prescribed interval.

A manufacturing method of a glass panel unit of the present invention includes a bonding step, a pressure reduction step, and a sealing step. In the bonding step, a first substrate and a second substrate are hermetically bonded together with a seal having a frame shape. In the pressure reduction step, a pressure in an inside space formed between the first substrate and the second substrate is reduced through an exhaust port. In the sealing step, sealant disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate is deformed, and the sealant thus deformed seals an opening of the exhaust port.

A method of producing A vacuum insulated glazing (VIG) unit, including providing a supporting structure and a solid pre-form of port soldering material provided with an opening, the supporting structure resting on the outer surface of the first pane of the VIG unit and extending over the opening of the evacuation hole, evacuating the void through the evacuation hole; and heating the port soldering material to a condition where it flows and merges across the evacuation hole while the supporting structure substantially maintain its position; and subsequently cooling the port soldering material to a solid condition so as to provide a gastight port seal forming a continuous body across the evacuation hole and preventing passage of gas to the void through the evacuation hole, and so that the port seal bonds to the outer surface of the first pane in a pattern that encloses the evacuation hole.

A method for manufacturing a glass panel unit includes an assembling step, a bonding step, a gas exhausting step, a sealing step, and an activating step. The bonding step includes melting a peripheral wall in a baking furnace at a first predetermined temperature to hermetically bond a first glass pane and a second glass pane together with the peripheral wall thus melted. The gas exhausting step includes exhausting a gas from an internal space through an exhaust port in the baking furnace to turn the internal space into a vacuum space. The sealing step includes locally heating to a temperature higher than a second predetermined temperature, and thereby melting, either a port sealing material or an exhaust pipe to seal the exhaust port and thereby obtain a work in progress. The activating step includes activating a gas adsorbent after the sealing step to obtain a glass panel unit.

A display case door assembly for a temperature-controlled storage device includes an opening into the temperature-controlled storage device and a vacuum panel mounted within the opening. The vacuum panel includes a first vacuum pane of tempered glass, a second vacuum pane of tempered glass, and an evacuated gap between the first and second vacuum panes. The evacuated gap has a predetermined thickness within which a vacuum is drawn, thereby providing a thermal insulation effect for the vacuum panel. The vacuum panel further includes a plurality of spacers disposed within the evacuated gap and configured to maintain the predetermined thickness of the evacuated gap when the vacuum is drawn therein.

The present disclosure relates to a vacuum insulated glazing unit, to the use thereof and to a method of manufacturing such a unit. The vacuum insulated glazing comprises a first glass pane, having a first interior major surface and a first exterior major surface and a second glass pane having a second interior major surface and second exterior major surface, the glass panes being arranged in parallel with said interior major surfaces facing each other. The VIG unit further comprises a low emissivity coating deposited on at least the first interior major surface, an edge region in proximity to the edge of the first glass pane, defined as where none or a reduced part of the low emissivity coating is present, and a side seal comprising a glassy seal material arranged at a minimum separation distance (d1_min) from said low emissivity coating, so that an intermediate part of said edge region between said glassy sealing material and said low emissivity coating is not bonded to said glassy sealing material, or a side seal arranged at a minimum separation distance (d1_min) of at least 1.5 mm, such as at least 2 mm, or such as at least 3 mm from said low emissivity coating.

Certain example embodiments of this invention relate to vacuum insulating glass (VIG) units having improved seals made using two different frit-based edge seal materials, and/or methods of making the same. In certain example embodiments, a first frit material is applied around peripheral edges of first and second glass substrates. The first frit material, which may be bismuth-based in certain example embodiments, is fired with a heat treatment (e.g., thermal tempering) process. A second frit material, which may be VBZ-based in certain example embodiments, is applied and at least partially overlaps with the fired first frit material. The first frit material acts as a primer, and the second frit material helps seal together the VIG unit. The second frit material is fired at a significantly lower temperature that enables the glass to retain the temper or other strength imparted by the heat treatment.

Certain embodiments of this invention relates to a writable window (e.g., IG window unit), where images (e.g., advertisements, logos, designs, pictures and/or words) can be selectively written into the window and are designed to be viewed by humans and/or animals. A substrate (e.g., glass substrate) supports a solar coating such as a low emissivity (low-E) coating which may include at least one infrared (IR) reflecting layer of or including silver that is located on and directly contacting a contact/seed layer of or including a material such as zinc oxide and/or zinc stannate. A radiation source (e.g., laser(s) and/or lamp(s)) may be used to selectively expose certain areas of the coating to radiation (e.g., UV radiation). The exposed area(s) of the coating, after being exposed and heated, have different optical characteristic(s) (e.g., higher visible transmission) than the area(s) of the coating not exposed to the radiation, so that following the laser exposure the exposed area(s) form an image(s) designed to be viewed by humans and/or animals.

The glass panel unit includes a first glass panel, a second glass panel, a seal, an evacuated space, and a spacer. The second glass panel is placed opposite the first glass panel. The seal with a frame shape hermetically bonds the first glass panel and the second glass panel to each other. The evacuated space is enclosed by the first glass panel, the second glass panel, and the seal. The spacer is placed between the first glass panel and the second glass panel. The spacer contains polyimide represented by chemical formula (1): ##STR00001##

The disclosure describes a tempered vacuum glass, which comprises: at least two glass sheets arranged parallel to each other; surrounding edges of adjacent glass sheets being sealed using an edge sealing structure; and support members placed in an array between the adjacent glass sheets to form a vacuum space. The edge sealing structure is a metallic edge-sealing structure. The structure comprises a first transition layer, a first metallized layer, a first intermetallic compound layer, a solder layer, a second intermetallic compound layer, a second metallized layer, and a second transition layer stacked in that order. The first and second metallized layers are in a spongy skeleton structure formed by sintering a metal paste. The first and second transition layers are formed by sintering the metal paste on the adjacent glass sheets, and contain a glass phase layer including metallic particles and a metal oxide layer with a net structure.