AngledGlass - our start-up team 2022

Img. 1: left to right Matthias Quast, Matthias Gremmelspacher, Tobias Rist.

This year, the LZN is once again supporting a creative team with an innovative, sustainable idea on its way to becoming a spin-off. The budding start-up ‘AngledGlass’ specialises in the innovative process for bending flat glass.
The ‘AngledGlass’ glass moulding process was developed at the Fraunhofer IWM and enables glass components to be bent precisely in tight radii without compromising the optical quality of the non-deformed areas. For this purpose, a flat sheet of glass is charged into an oven chamber and heated to a base temperature. The pane is then heated locally above the glass transition temperature using a laser. The pane becomes malleable in this section and is shaped according to the heating pattern.
The development activities for flat glass bending at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM can now be traced back 15 years. Years of foundational research with various objectives have resulted in different process control options. Different types of heating (global / local) were developed, as well as mould-based and mould-free bending processes. A form-free curved demonstrator of 90° curved all-glass insulating glazing attracted a great deal of interest from industry at a trade fair for the glass industry, which led to the idea of a spin-off to commercialise the technology.
‘AngledGlass’ was then financed and supported in two strands as part of the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft's AHEAD funding programme:

  • Development of a business plan and creation of the financial and personnel framework conditions
  • Development of a technology roadmap and scaling of the technology

The aim of the start-up is now to further develop the process based on the 3 USPs (precision, optical quality, sharp radii) in order to meet customer requirements and manufacture marketable products.

Img. 2: All-glass corner application scenario: the one-piece design eliminates the thermal bridge in the bend of the pane. The insulating air gap now exists over the entire pane surface - even in the corner area.

Update

AngledGlass becomes Glape!

We are delighted to announce that the start-up has taken the next step towards becoming a spin-off. Congratulations and good luck for the future!

More information about Glape and the co-founders Dr Najoua Bolakhrif and Matthias Quast can be found on the website: https://glape.de/