The coatings physicist Colin Hall and his colleagues (University of South Australia’s Future Industries Institute) have created a new manufacturing process that will allow manufacturers to replace glass components with light-weight plastic. This process could be applied also to the white goods. As reported by “Science in Public” (a science communication and public relations business based in Melbourne), the first commercial success of this innovation is a plastic car wing-mirror. The innovation challenge for car mirror manufacturers was to overcome problems with coating adhesion to plastic, oxidation of any reflective mirror layer and coating stability in both sunlight and extreme temperatures. Colin Hall developed a combination of five layers of materials that bind to plastic to create a car mirror that performs as well as glass and metal, for a fraction of the weight. Colin studied the plastic components already on the market. He found that the mirror coatings had poor surface finish, and the metal layer was weakly bonded to the plastic so that it would inevitably fail when exposed to heat, cold and UV. Inspired by his work on spectacles, he developed a new approach that involves: a resin layer that coats the plastic and removes imperfections in the moulding, a silicon dioxide layer that reduces temperature stress and abrasion, a chrome alloy layer that acts as the mirror, and also reflects UV, another silicon dioxide layer for abrasion resistance, and a water-repelling layer for easy cleaning and defrosting. The combination delivers a highly reflective, shatterproof, long-lasting mirror. For his contribution to creating a new manufacturing technology, Colin Hall has received the Prime Minister’s inaugural Prize for New Innovators.
