Cardinal's Neat™ Glass Cleans Itself

Cardinal CG Co. of Minneapolis has introduced a new high-performance coated glass called Neat™ naturally clean glass, which it says can almost cleans itself. According to the company, Neat uses the sun's ultraviolet rays to loosen dirt so water can rinse it away, leaving windows easy to clean.

Neat glass is made through the use of Cardinal's patented double-sputtering process, through which an invisible, durable and permanent coating of silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide are applied to the glass. According to the company's announcement, silicon dioxide makes Neat glass much smoother than ordinary glass, so water disperses evenly, "sheets off" and evaporates quickly, reducing water spotting.

In addition, the titanium dioxide reacts chemically with the sun's ultraviolet rays, causing organic materials that are on the glass to decompose. According to Cardinal, it works even on cloudy days, as 80 percent of ultraviolet radiation gets through cloud cover. Then when it rains, the decomposed dirt is rinsed away, leaving the glass almost spotless.

Another major advantage of Neat is that it can be combined with any of Cardinal's energy-efficient LoE coatings.