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What does the Morpho Butterfly have to do with window film? |
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3M's Design Motivation for Prestige Window Film
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The Morpho butterfly can be the most beautiful color of blue. The Morpho, however, has no pigment whatsoever in its wings. The blue color is the result of a tiny multi-layer wing structure that receives all light, but reflects back only the blue spectrum. Prestige film is made the same way, with over 220 multiple layers in less than 2mm thickness. Prestige film has layers of alternating polymers that are spaced to receive light, but reflect back the infrared spectrum, the portion of light that most produces heat.
Click to see a video of this wonderful design analogy.
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3M scientist Andrew J. Ouderkirk has won significant acknowledgment and awards in the scientific community over the nanotechnology design used in the Prestige window film line. Prestige window film is a very significant breakthrough that allows for a clear window film with no metals that will actually outperform traditional and ceramic film designs. No shiny metals, no dark dye. A clearly superior design.
What is Nanotechnology?
Nanotechnology is one of the latest and greatest buzz words in the area of new product technology. The truth is that nanotechnology really isn’t that new. Aspects of nanotechnology date back to medieval times when gold was incorporated into glass by forgers. This gold was a nanoparticle size and therefore gave the brilliant red colors seen in stained glass windows. What has changed more recently is our ability to image and detect things at the nanometer level. Loosely defined, nanotechnology relates to materials that are less than 100 nanometers. For comparison sake, a human hair is about 50,000 nanometers (50 microns or 0.05 millimeters).
The current advances in nanotechnology are allowing for improvements in performance characteristics of products while not visibly changing the product. These improvements can be increased toughness or scratch resistance, improved clarity, improved antireflection, improved heat rejection, or even easier cleaning or self-cleaning properties.
3M has been a leader in the area of nanotechnology for two decades. 3M has incorporated nanotechnology into a number of its products already. One very successful product has been 3M ESPE’s Filtek™ Supreme Dental Restorative. This nanocomposite restorative has revolutionized the dental industry. The nanoparticles in the filler give the restored tooth a natural looking translucent quality that can be polished to mimic the look of the surrounding tooth which itself is a naturally occurring nanocomposite.
3M utilizes nanotechnology in some of its advanced hardcoats to give greatly improved scratch resistance. The use of nanoparticles in advanced optical adhesives has expanded the upper range of refractive index that can be achieved in applications that require index matching between optical components.
One 3M’s biggest advances in nanotechnology has been multi-layer optical film (MOF). These films are composed of many layers, only nanometers thick, that allow the film to control light. The Vikuiti™ films take advantage of this technology and are found in laptop computers, cellular phones and LCD flat panel televisions. MOF has been engineered to form nearly perfect mirrors that are non-metallic.
3M is utilizing nanotechnology in many other areas such as thermally conductive adhesive soft tape for flat panel high definition televisions, fuel cell catalysts, high index retroreflective traffic beads, Prestige Window Film and many other areas. 3M’s Corporate Research Lab has a large group researching more areas of nanotechnology so that 3M will continue to be a leader in bringing innovative products to the market that take advantage of nanotechnology to deliver improved performance.
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Butterflys & Tint?