Linkam Scientific Instruments’ PE120 stage and imaging station has been used in the development of smart energy windows at RavenBrick LLC.
Colorado-based RavenBrick has been helping builders and architects respond to the energy challenges of the future with green building materials since 2006.
The company manufactures smart windows which use thermochromatic filter technology to help regulate the temperature of a building by saving energy costs and reducing glare from sunlight.
The windows automatically control the amount of light, heat and glare that passes through the glass by using a special set of filters made of liquid crystals that change phase depending on the amount of solar energy exerted on them.
The filters allow windows to smoothly transit from a clear state to a tinted state when the external conditions necessitate it.
As more companies and homeowners push towards becoming greener for environmental and economic reasons, research and investment into the next generation of smart windows is becoming increasingly important.
RavenBrick’s R&D manager, Dr Wilder Iglesias, has been using a Linkam PE120 system including an Imaging Station and Linksys 32 software to help with the manufacture and advancement of products.
With the thermoelectrically cooled stage, he has been able to study the quality and refine the composition of the liquid crystals that are used in the company’s windows.
He said: “My company manufactures smart windows based on liquid crystal (LC) technology. The window tints if the temperature is too hot, blocking solar energy from penetrating the building/house and clears when the temperature is low, allowing the sun energy to heat up the building.
“The tinting of our windows depends on the LC phase sequence, so we use the Linkam stage for two purposes: to qualify incoming liquid crystal material and to find the right mix of LC to have the appropriate phase transitions for the weather profile of the place of installation and/or comfort factor from the customer.”
As well as the Stage, Dr Iglesias and his team have also found the Linksys32 software to be invaluable to their research.
“As a software developer for this type of instruments, I really appreciate the simplicity and how powerful the Linksys32 software is.”
He added: “In some sense we use the Linkam system as a visual differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), by monitoring the intensity changes on the Real Time Chart of the Linksys32 software, where a large intensity variation implies a phase transition on the material.”
