Highly Insulating Windows for Improved Energy Efficiency and Reliability in Fenestration Applications

EverSealed Windows, Inc. (ESW) agreed in early 2006, prior to the contract award, to add three additional deliverables to the Project (new Milestones 30, 31 and 32), and have the results of these three deliverables form the basis of the go/no-go decision for proceeding from BP1 to BP2. ESW completed all three milestones and the DOE agreed in November 2006 to continue the Project. ESW subsequently initiated work on BP2 and its two milestones. These were to (1) Assemble and test glass-to-metal bonded coupons to test the strength of ESW's glass-to-metal bonds (ESW's Test Vehicle 1 or TV1), and (2) to assemble and test the hermeticity of glass and metal packages (ESW's Test Vehicle 2 or TV2). ESW completed both milestones of BP2 in late 2010, demonstrating that its bonds were both strong enough and hermetic enough that vacuum insulating glass units could be assembled and survive a 40+ year service life in any climate in North America. Based on the accomplishments in BP-1, the DOE held a go/no-go meeting in Washington, DC in mid-November 2006 and moved the Project into Budget Period 2 (BP-2). During this go/no-go meeting, the DOE expressed a concern that ESW did not have amore » back-up plan or process should ESW be unable to make its diffusion bonding process more than adequate for the necessary bond strength and hermeticity of the seal. ESW suggested and volunteered to investigate using a glass frit (i.e., solder glass) as a back-up to its diffusion bonding of glass to oxidized metal.« less