Abstract:
The present disclosure is directed to a method for coating the edge of glass articles. The shaped edge of a glass article is inserted into the slot of a coating apparatus. The coating apparatus includes a vessel containing a UV curable coating material, an element connected to the vessel having the slot, wherein the slot is shaped to receive an edge of the glass article; and a coating pad having a coating surface shaped to conform to the shaped edge of the glass article, the pad having a network of interconnected openings therethrough, wherein the coating pad extends from the vessel and into the element so that the coating surface forms a bottom surface of the slot. An ultraviolet (UV) curable coating material is supplied to the coating pad and the shaped edge is contacted with the coating pad surface to transfer a selected thickness of the coating material from the coating pad to the shaped edge. The UV curable coating material is then cured on the shaped glass edge.

Description:
This application claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61/586,889 filed on Jan. 16, 2012 the content of which is relied upon and incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     FIELD 
     This disclosure is directed to a method for coating polymers on edge surfaces, and in particular for coating polymers on glass edges. The disclosure is also directed to an apparatus that can be used in the method for coating the polymers on the glass edges. 
     BACKGROUND 
     Glass is known to be extremely strong in the freshly manufactured stated; for example, by drawing (fusion draw or slot draw), the float process and other methods. However, the strength rapidly deteriorates as the surface becomes flawed. The flaws can be generated when glass contacts other surfaces and becomes scratched, abraded or impacted and chipped. Damaging contact with other surfaces can be avoided if the glass&#39; surfaces, faces and/or edges, are covered with a protective material; for example, adhesive plastic or paper materials, and polymer films. However, these methods are labor intensive, frequently require covering surfaces that for which protection is either not need or is not desired. In addition, the smaller and/or thinner the glass article, the more difficult it is to protect some of the glass&#39; surfaces, particularly edge surfaces. Further, since many glass articles are cut from large sheets of glass, edge protection is of high importance, particularly for small to medium electronic devices such as cell phones, e-book readers, electronic notepads, notebook and laptop computers, and similar devices. 
     Several techniques have been tried to strengthen the edge of the glass. One approach has been to acid etch the glass edges to gain strength. Other methods have been described in US Patent Application Publications 2010-0282260, 2010-285277 and 2010-0221501 which include protecting the glass edge using polymer overmolding, a machinable metal armor layer laid over the edge, polymer tapes and liquid polymers, or a shaped fiber such as a glass fiber. However, each has proven unsatisfactory for varying reasons such as they were labor intensive, were not susceptible to automation, required additional processing steps which increased costs, or the edge protection material had to be molded over the edge onto the face of the article which can be undesirable from aesthetic and tactile viewpoints. 
     Despite all the efforts put forth, there still exists a need for a method of coating multiple glass edges, including profiled edges, for example edges around a glass article that are flat, bull nosed, chamfered or have other shapes. The flexibility of being able to coat edges having different shapes is extremely important and desirable, particularly when it comes to various device shapes and sizes, and in some cases there is no bezel frame around the display (that is, a only glass-to-glass display). Further, it is desirable that the method of applying the protective coating not only provides for uniformity and damage resistance, but the coating itself should be either optically clear or substantially transmissive to light wavelengths in one or more of the infrared (“IR”), visible, and ultraviolet (“UV”) wavelength ranges. Further, it is desirable is some application that the coating to be non-apparent; that is, the glass should appear to the user of the articles as if it is not coated at all. 
     The present disclosure is directed to a method of coating edges, particularly shaped edges; a device that can apply a coating to the edges and additionally has an interchangeable element so that it can be used to apply a coating to edges having different shapes; and to particular coating that can be used to coat the edges to provide a protected edge in which the coating 
     SUMMARY 
     The present disclosure is directed to a method of coating edges of glass articles, particularly articles with shaped edges; a device that can apply a coating to the shaped edges and additionally has an interchangeable element so that it can be used to apply a coating to edges having different shapes. The coating can be applied in a wrap-around manner to all edges of a glass article. The method can apply coatings to glass articles with different edge profiles; for example, articles whose edge profiles are flat, curved, bull nosed, chamfered and other profiles. After the coating has been applied it is cures either thermally, using actinic radiation or an electron beam. The coating then serves to protect the glass edges from damage by abrasion and/or impact. In one embodiment the coating compositions are based on urethane (meth)acrylate oligomer(s) or epoxy resins that contain nano-size inorganic particles, for example, silica nanoparticles. In one embodiment the inorganic nano-particles in the coating material have a size in the range of 1 nm to 100 nm. In another embodiment the inorganic nano-particles in the coating material have a size in the range of 5 nm to 50 nm. In a further embodiment the inorganic nano-particle in the coating material have a size in the range of 10 nm to 40 nm. The inorganic nano-particle can be selected from the group consisting of silica, carbon and the oxides of iron, aluminum, titanium, tin, zirconium, indium, antimony and cerium. The coating compositions can be formulated to cure either optically clear or substantially transmissive to light wavelengths in one or more of the infrared (“IR”), visible, and ultraviolet (“UV”) wavelength ranges. Further, it is desirable in some application that the coating to be non-apparent; that is, the glass should appear to the article&#39;s user as if no coating has been applied. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is an illustration of an embodiment of a coating apparatus illustrating a first or top element having a slot or groove in which is located a coating pad, a vessel containing the coating fluid-polymer, an second element or cap for connecting the top element to the vessel; and the coating pad in the slot can extend from the slot into the fluid in the vessel. 
         FIG. 2   a  is an illustration of the interchangeable top element and cap used in the coating method disclosed herein. 
         FIG. 2   b  is an enlargement of top element with its slot and coating pads. 
         FIG. 2   c  is an alternate embodiment in which the second element has a base has an opening in it than can be connected to a pump. 
         FIGS. 2   d - 2   f  are illustrations of chamfered, bull nosed and flat edged glass articles  20 , respectively, and the shaped of the corresponding coating pads  17 . 
         FIG. 2   g  is an illustration of a glass article having an unsymmetrical edge profile and a corresponding shaped coating pad. 
         FIG. 3  is photograph showing a laboratory coater in which vessel  10  is a soft plastic material that can be squeezed. 
         FIG. 4   a  shows a 0.7 mm thick glass article having UV cured polymer coating on a bull nosed shaped edge. 
         FIG. 4   b  shows a 1.1 mm thick glass article having UV cured polymer coating on a bull nosed shaped edge. 
         FIG. 5   a  is con-focal microscope image show a glass article having a symmetrical bull nose edge profile, the coating being a 40-50 μm UV cured polymer coating at the tip of the bull nose. 
         FIG. 5   b  is con-focal microscope image show a glass article having a non-symmetrical edge profile. 
         FIGS. 6   a  and  6   b  show a bull nosed glass article having a single layer of a UV cured polymer coating and a four layer, UV cured polymer coating in which the polymer was cured after each layer was applied. 
         FIGS. 7   a  and  7   b  illustrate a 2D glass article and a 3D glass article, respectively. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     This disclosure is directed to a method, called herein the “wrap-around” method, of applying polymers to the edge(s) of glass articles having shaped edges. The term “wrap-around” refers to the pad that is used to coat a glass article&#39;s shaped edge. The reason the term “wrap-around” is used is because using a robotic device, or hand held, is possible to rotate the article or the applicator so that all edges are coated without removing the article from the coater. The pad has a shaped surface that conforms to the shape of the glass edge such that when the glass article&#39;s edge passes over and in contact with the pad only the edge is coated and the coating material does coat or overflow onto the main surfaces of the glass. That is, the coating material does not overflow onto the articles faces defined by the length and width of the article. Also herein, with reference to mineral  18 , the terms “groove” and “slot” may be used interchangeably. 
     The glass articles have a selected length, selected width and selected thickness which define a first face, a second face and one or a plurality of edges. Circular and oval articles are deemed to have a single edge. Rectangular, square, hexagonal, octagonal, and other shapes having angled corners are deemed to have a plurality of edges defined by the faces and thickness of the glass. In addition the glass articles can be either (1) flat or planar as shown in  FIG. 6   a , which is sometimes referred to as a two dimensional or 2D article, or (2) three dimensional or 3D article in which the glass article is non-planar as is illustrated in  FIG. 6   b . The 3D shapes can be made from 2D glass pieces a molding process such as sagging, pressing molding, a combination of pressing and sagging, or can be formed by pressing molding a gob of molten glass. 
     The edge of a formed glass article can be coated with a polymeric material that can be cured. While either thermal and UV curable polymers can be used in the coating method described herein, it is preferred to use UV curable polymers because they can be cured immediately after the edge has been coated without having to move the article to a furnace or other heat source for curing. For example, the UV curing device can be located adjacent to the coating apparatus. 
       FIG. 1  is an illustration of an exemplary coater that can be used to coat glass edges. The device shown in  FIG. 1  consists of a vessel  10  containing a fluid-polymer material  12 , an element  16  that has a slot  18 , and an element  14  that connect element  16  with vessel  10 . The coater also has a coating pad  17  for coating the edge of a glass article with the fluid-polymer material. In one embodiment as exemplified in  FIG. 1  the coating pad  17  extends from slot  18  into vessel  10  and is used for moving the fluid-polymer material from the vessel to the slot where it is coated onto the edge of article  20 . Tube  15  on the side of vessel  10  is used to maintain the pressure in vessel  10  at either atmospheric pressure or slightly above atmospheric pressure by using pressure equipment (not illustrated) in order to assure that the fluid-polymer continuously feed up pad  17  to slot  18  where the pad  17  will contact the glass article being coated. If the vessel is pressurized, then sensors can be used at both ends of slot  18  so that pressure is maintained only while a glass article is being fed through the slot. 
       FIG. 2   a  provides an enlarged view of both elements  14  and  16 .  FIG. 2   b  provides an enlarged view of the element  16 , slot  18  and pad  17  that, as illustrated in  FIG. 1 , extends from slot  18  into the fluid-polymer contained in vessel  10 .  FIG. 2   c  illustrates an embodiment of the disclosure in which element  14  has a base  14   a  with an opening  14   b  that is connected to a pump  13  by a tube  11 . The pump  13  can be a syringe pump, a peristaltic pump or other type pump suitable for pumping the fluid-polymer material, and tube  11  can be a rigid tube or a flexible tube. When the pump is activated it will pump the fluid-polymer material into element  14  element  16  and to pad  17 , which lies within which will absorb it and transfer it to the edge of the glass article as it passes through the slot. The use of a pump type device enables the use of a shorter length coating pad  17  which facilitates changing either the entire assembly of elements  14  and  14 , or simple changing element  16 , and also enables the use of a shorter pad  17 . In  FIG. 2   c , element  14  acts as the vessel for the fluid-polymer coating material which is pumped through pump  13  and tube  11  into element  14  until the fluid-polymer reached pad  17 . Reversing the pump will cause the polymer containing fluid level to retract within element  14  and thus facilitates changing element  16  either because the pad  17  becomes worn or clogged, or because a different shaped pad is required due to a change in the edge shape that will be coated. 
     The dimensions A,B,C, and D in  FIGS. 1 ,  2   a  and  2   b  can be modified to accompany different edge profiles and shapes. Dimension A represents the width of the slot, B and C represent the represent the depth of the slot, and D represents the length of the slot. These dimensions A,B,C, and D can be modified to accompany different edge profiles and shapes. For example, Dimension A can be changed according to the thickness of the glass article, for example without limitation, 0.1 mm, 1.1 mm, 3 mm, etc. Dimensions B and C according to whether the shaped edge of the glass is symmetrical or non-symmetrical.  FIGS. 2   d - 2   f  represent symmetrically glass edges where the shapes are chamfered, bull nosed and flat, respectively; and  FIG. 2   g  represents an unsymmetrical glass edge. Dimension D can be changed according to the length of the glass article. 
     When coating using the a device described herein, the glass edge is either (a) placed into the coating slot and the fluid polymer material is forced through the pad to coat the edge groove for coating, or (b) coated by swiping from one end of the slot to the other end after the fluid polymer fluid polymer material has been forced through the pad in the slot. The pad is made of a material that will soak up the fluid polymer material and the pad also has a network of interconnected openings that are sufficiently larger so that the nanoparticles in the fluid polymer material can pass through the pad. In order to allow the nanoparticles in the coating material to pass through the interconnected openings in the pad. The opening should have a diameter in the range of 0.01 μm to 1000 μm. The pad material is typically a dispensing “felt” material, for example, dispensing “felt” pads made by Designetics, Inc (Holland, Ohio). Similar materials can be obtained from other corporations. Although the shapes of the felt materials have not been designed for the use described herein, they can be modified to have a shape that is complimentary to the shape of the glass edge as is illustrated in  FIGS. 2   d - 2   g . It is critical that all the dimensions A,B,C,D be controlled during the design and making of the coating pad and the slot in order to insure that that a good coating is applied to the glass edge. Dimensions B and C control the coating depth on each side of the glass article, and this for unsymmetrical articles the dimensions are different to insure that the edge has a uniform coating thickness on all its surfaces. The thickness of the glass article that can be coated is controlled by dimension A and control of this dimension is necessary in order to avoid wobble as the glass is passed through the slot. The length of the slot is controlled by dimension D, the length typically being at least 40% of the longest edge being coated when the swiping procedure (b) described above is used for coating. If swiping is not used, then the slot should be sufficiently long to accommodate the entire edge being coated. Using the method and devices described herein, the thickness of the applied coating material per swipe is in the range of 15 μm to 50 μm. The minimum coating thickness needed to provide edge protection is approximately 15 μm. The applied coating thickness depend on the viscosity and how we control the geometry of the slot. 
       FIG. 3  is photograph showing a laboratory coater that uses a vessel  10  than can be squeezed. The coater vessel  10  contains fluid UV curable epoxy material which is the epoxy described in Table 1. A washed glass article having beveled edges is hand held. The numerals have the same meaning as those of  FIG. 1 , and, to avoid any confusion, “RI” indicates the reflected image of article  20  on the wall behind the coater. When the user is ready to coat, the bottle was gently squeezed to push the material upward and wet the pad, which was made of felt, and then the squeezing pressure was released. The amount of pressure that was used to push the material upward to wet the felt pad is dependent on the viscosity of the coating material. The felt pad soaked up the coating and retained a certain amount for coating when the pressure was released. The edges of the washed, beveled, ion-exchanged glass article were swiped then through the slot and were in contact with the pad to coat the edge(s) with the polymer material. The groove depth (dimensions B and C) determine the amount of coating material that was placed on the glass edges. The dimensions B and C can be separately controlled for a non-symmetric edge profile so that coating can be coated evenly around the entire part.  FIGS. 4   a  and  4   b  are examples of coating glass for both symmetric and non-symmetric profiles. 
     The coating devices described herein can be used for laboratory, pilot line or production coating of parts. For pilot line or production uses, the tip can have multiple grooves to coat multiple pieces as the time. In one embodiment the edges of the glass articles or parts are coated one edge side at a time. For example, for a rectangular part with four edges, the first edge is coated by passing the part through the coating tip; the part is rotated and the second edge is passed through the coating tip, and so on until all four edges have been coated. When UV curable polymer materials are used, the edges can be UV cured after all edges have been coated. Alternatively, by positioning a UV curing device near the exit of the slot, each edge can be separately cured after it is coated. The edges are coated and cured in sequence. When curing is done after all edges have been coated the glass article can be held by a vacuum chuck and either (a) the coating tip moves and coats each edge of the article, or (b) the vacuum chuck can is rotated and is used to rotate the glass article after each edge has been coated until all sides have been completed. 
     The coating compositions are based on urethane (meth)acrylate oligomer(s) or epoxy resins that contain nano-size inorganic particles, for example, silica nanoparticles. The coating compositions can be formulated to cure either optically clear or substantially transmissive to light wavelengths in one or more of the infrared (“IR”), visible, and ultraviolet (“UV”) wavelength ranges. In one embodiment the coating compositions are UV curable compositions. Table 1 describes a representative UV curable epoxy coating and Table 2 describes a representative UV curable urethane (meth)acrylate oligomeric coating composition. Using the method and device(s) described herein, the coating materials can have a viscosity in the range of 300 cps to 10000 cps. 
     
       
         
               
               
               
             
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 1 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 Percent by 
                 Material 
                   
               
               
                 weight 
                 Trade Name 
                 Material Chemical Type 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                 48.00 
                 Nanopox C-620 
                 Cycloaliphatic epoxy resin containing 
               
               
                   
                   
                 40 wt % 20 nm spherical silica 
               
               
                   
                   
                 nanoparticles 
               
               
                 48.00 
                 Nanopox C-660 
                 Oxetane monomer containing 50 wt % 
               
               
                   
                   
                 20 nm spherical silica nanoparticles 
               
               
                 1.00 
                 Cyacure UVI-697 E 
                 Cationic photoinitiator 
               
               
                 2.00 
                 Silquest A-186 
                 Silane adhesion promoter 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     The epoxy-based UV curable material can either be clear or colored, and has a viscosity in the range of 300 cps to 10000 cps. 
     
       
         
               
               
               
             
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 2 
               
               
                   
               
               
                 Percent by 
                 Material 
                   
               
               
                 weight 
                 Trade Name 
                 Material Chemical Type 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                 44.00 
                 CN9009 
                 Aliphatic urethane acrylate oligomer 
               
               
                 50.00 
                 16046-27-1 
                 Acrylic monomer containing 30 wt % 20 nm 
               
               
                   
                   
                 spherical silica nanoparticles 
               
               
                 3.00 
                 Irgacure 184 
                 Photoinitiator 
               
               
                 3.00 
                 APTMS 
                 Silane adhesion promoter 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     The urethane-based UV curable material can either be clear or colored, and has a viscosity in the range of 300 cps to 10000 cps. 
     Table 3 describes the composition of a representative of the non-ion-exchanged glass article that can be coated using the method and devices described herein. These composition can be ion-exchanged using, for example, a KNO 3  salt bath to replace sodium and/or lithium ions in the glass with potassium. 
     
       
         
               
             
               
               
             
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
               
             
           
               
                 TABLE 3 
               
             
             
               
                   
               
               
                 Non-ion-exchanged glass compositions 
               
             
          
           
               
                 Oxides 
                 Glass 
               
             
          
           
               
                 (mol %) 
                 1 
                 2 
                 3 
                 4 
                 5 
                 6 
                 7 
                 8 
                 9 
                 10 
                 11 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                 SiO 2   
                 66.16 
                 69.49 
                 63.06 
                 64.89 
                 63.28 
                 67.64 
                 66.58 
                 64.49 
                 66.53 
                 67.19 
                 70.62 
               
               
                 Al 2 O 3   
                 10.29 
                 8.45 
                 8.45 
                 5.79 
                 7.93 
                 10.63 
                 11.03 
                 8.72 
                 8.68 
                 3.29 
                 0.86 
               
               
                 TiO 2   
                 0 
                   
                   
                 — 
                 — 
                 0.64 
                 0.66 
                 0.056 
                 0.004 
                 — 
                 0.089 
               
               
                 Na 2 O 
                 14 
                 14.01 
                 15.39 
                 11.48 
                 15.51 
                 12.29 
                 13.28 
                 15.63 
                 10.76 
                 13.84 
                 13.22 
               
               
                 K 2 O 
                 2.45 
                 1.16 
                 3.44 
                 4.09 
                 3.46 
                 2.66 
                 2.5 
                 3.32 
                 0.007 
                 1.21 
                 0.013 
               
               
                 B 2 O 3   
                 0.6 
                   
                 1.93 
                 — 
                 1.9 
                 — 
                 — 
                 0.82 
                 — 
                 2.57 
                 — 
               
               
                 SnO 2   
                 0.21 
                 0.185 
                 — 
                 — 
                 0.127 
                 — 
                 — 
                 0.028 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
               
               
                 BaO 
                 0 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 0.021 
                 0.01 
                 0.009 
                 — 
               
               
                 As 2 O 3   
                 0 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 0.24 
                 0.27 
                   
                 — 
                 0.02 
                 — 
               
               
                 Sb 2 O 3   
                 — 
                 — 
                 0.07 
                 — 
                 0.015 
                 — 
                 0.038 
                 0.127 
                 0.08 
                 0.04 
                 0.013 
               
               
                 CaO 
                 0.58 
                 0.507 
                 2.41 
                 0.29 
                 2.48 
                 0.094 
                 0.07 
                 2.31 
                 0.05 
                 7.05 
                 7.74 
               
               
                 MgO 
                 5.7 
                 6.2 
                 3.2 
                 11.01 
                 3.2 
                 5.8 
                 5.56 
                 2.63 
                 0.014 
                 4.73 
                 7.43 
               
               
                 ZrO 2   
                 0.0105 
                 0.01 
                 2.05 
                 2.4 
                 2.09 
                 — 
                 — 
                 1.82 
                 2.54 
                 0.03 
                 0.014 
               
               
                 Li 2 O 
                 0 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 11.32 
                 — 
                 — 
               
               
                 Fe 2 O 3   
                 0.0081 
                 0.008 
                 0.0083 
                 0.008 
                 0.0083 
                 0.0099 
                 0.0082 
                 0.0062 
                 0.0035 
                 0.0042 
                 0.0048 
               
               
                 SrO 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 0.029 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
                 — 
               
               
                   
               
             
          
         
       
     
     Pictures shown in  FIGS. 4   a ,  4   b ,  5   a ,  5   b ,  6   a  and  6   b  represent selected from Table 3 that was ion-exchanged using a KNO 3  salt bath to replace Na ions in the glass with larger K ions. The coating quality and thickness made from using the method described here was found to be equivalent to dip coating method. One advantage to using the coating method described herein is that coating tip, the element containing the slot and coating pad, can be modified to enable coating various edge profiles and glass thicknesses with high material utilization compare to other processes. 
       FIGS. 4   a  and  4   b  show 0.7 mm and 1.1 mm glass articles whose edges have been coated using the coating material described in Table 1. The coating material was UV cured directly after it was coated onto the glass edge(s). Similar results were obtained using the coating material described in Table 2. 
       FIGS. 5   a  and  5   b  are photographs taken using a con-focal microscope. In  FIG. 5   a , numeral  30  shown beveled/non-beveled regions of a bull nosed article&#39;s edge, the edge having a symmetrical profile. In  FIG. 5   b , numeral  33  shows the beveled/non-beveled regions of a bull nosed article&#39;s edge, the edge having a non-symmetrical profile, 
       FIG. 6   a  is a photograph of a bull nosed glass article edge having a single coating layer of the coating material of Table 1.  FIG. 6   b  is a photograph of a bull nosed glass article have four coating layers. The polymer coating material was applied to the edge and cured directly after application. This cycle was carried out once for  FIG. 6   a  and four time for  FIG. 6   b . The coating in  FIG. 6   a  is 45 μm thick. The coating in  FIG. 6   b  is 134 μm thick. 
     Using the method and devices described herein, the advantages of that can be realized are:
         (1) The wrap-around coating method allows one to achieve a uniform and smooth layer all around the glass edge to provide the impact resistance.   (2) The wrap-around coating method can be applied to various glass edge profiles such as flat, curved, bull nosed, chamfered etc.   (3) The wrap-around method can be used to apply a coating to the edges on various glass thicknesses, for example without limitation, glass articles having thicknesses of 0.6 mm, 0.7 mm, 1.1 mm.   (4) The wrap-around coating method lends itself to multiple application of the coating material to glass edges to obtain a desired coating thickness   (5) The wrap-around coating method can used with coating materials having a wide viscosity range, for example, coating materials having a viscosity in the range of 300 cps to 10000 cps. In one embodiment the viscosity was in the range of 500 cps to 4000 cps.   (6) Using the method and device(s) described herein, the coating can be applied in such a way that it will either be applied only to the glass edge(s) only or extended to cover the both the shaped edge and one or both of the glass faces for a selected distance from the edge.   (7) The coating method and device(s) described herein can be installed adjacent to a UV curing unit so that coating can be cured within seconds after it applied to the glass&#39; edge(s).   (8) The coating method and device(s) described herein can be modified to that a plurality of glass articles can be simultaneously coated on a single production line by using a tip element having multiple slots and coating pads. Further, different slots can have different shaped pads so that glass articles with different shaped edges can be processed simultaneously.   (9) The coating method and device(s) described herein can be used with different types of UV curable polymeric materials. The polymeric materials can contain nanoparticles or can be nanoparticle free.   (10) The wrap-around method can be used for both symmetrical and non-symmetrical edge profiles; for example without limitation, a bull nose profile in which the bevel on each side of bull nose tip has a different bevel length.   (11) Coating material drifting on the coated sides is avoided.   (12) Coating material utilization is very high; there is no waste of the coating materials relative to dip or spray coating methods.       

     This disclosure is directed to a method for coating the edge of glass articles, the method comprising:
         providing a glass article having at least one shaped edge,   providing a coating pad having a coating surface shaped to conform to the shaped edge of the glass article, the pad having a network of interconnected openings there-through;   supplying a selected UV curable coating material to the coating pad;   swiping the at least one shaped edge across the coating pad surface that conform to the shape of the glass edge to transfer a selected thickness of the coating material from the coating pad to the at least one glass edge;   providing a source of UV radiation for curing the UV curable coating material;   curing the UV curable coating material on the shaped glass edge; and   repeating the swiping and curing steps as necessary to provide a glass article having a selected thickness of cured coating material thereon. The coating material transferred per swipe to shaped glass edge is in the range of 15 μm to 25 μm. The interconnected openings in the pad have a diameter in the range of 0.01 μm to 1000 μm. The UV curable coating material is selected from the group consisting of urethane (meth)acrylate oligomer(s) containing nano-size inorganic particles and epoxy resins containing nano-size inorganic particles, the particle size being in the range of 1 nm to 100 nm. The provided glass can be an ion-exchanged glass or a glass that has not been ion-exchanged (non-ion-exchanged glass).       

     The disclosure is further directed to an apparatus for coating the edge of class articles having shaped edges, the apparatus comprising:
         a vessel containing a UV curable coating material;   a coating pad having interconnected opening through the pad an a coating surface shaped to conform to the shaped edge of the glass article;   an element containing the coating pad; and   a means for transferring the coating material from the vessel to the element containing the coating pad and the coating pad therein. The means for transferring the coating material from the vessel to the pad is a pump connected to the vessel and the element containing the coating pad.       

     Various modifications and variations can be made to the materials, methods, and articles described herein. Other aspects of the materials, methods, and articles described herein will be apparent from consideration of the specification and practice of the materials, methods, and articles disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary.