Patent ID: 8763427

Claim:
A method of making a vacuum insulating glass (VIG) unit, the method comprising: providing first and second substantially parallel spaced apart glass substrates with a space and a plurality of spaced-apart spacers located between the substrates, the first and second substrates each including one or more edge portions to be sealed, a frit comprising glass being provided at least partially between the first and second glass substrates for sealing said one or more edge portions to be sealed; and irradiating infrared energy within a wavelength range of from 0.9 to 1.2 microns from one or more infrared energy sources towards the frit comprising glass at the one or more edge portions to be sealed in forming an edge seal of the VIG unit, wherein the frit comprising glass has a glass redox (FeO/Fe 2 O 3 ) that is higher than a glass redox (FeO/Fe 2 O 3 ) of the first and second substrates.