Thermal conductance measurement on vacuum glazing

A method is described for measuring the thermal conductance of vacuum glazing that is well-suited for integration into the manufacturing process of such devices. The sample of vacuum glazing to be measured, initially at elevated temperature, is placed in contact with a second sample of vacuum glazing with a known thermal conductance. The external surfaces of the glazings are then cooled by forced flow of air at room temperature, and a measurement is made of the rate of decrease of the temperature of the contacting glass sheets of the two samples. The method is simple to implement, and can be automated. The results obtained with the method are quite reproducible. The measurement can be made as the production samples of vacuum glazing cool at the completion of the manufacturing process, resulting in significant savings in time and labour compared with other methods.