Manoj Phatak, CEO of ArtRatio, has been working since 2009 with various smart glass materials to reduce light exposure damage on collections of art and antiquities.
Stemming from the many questions raised by clients about what these materials are, Manoj decided to start ‘Smart Glass World’ as a Linkedin group in 2012, mainly to inform customers, but also to reveal industry trends, innovations and the people behind them.
The Linkedin group has grown and so it seemed logical to convert it into a global industry portal, and hence SmartGlassWorld.net was born in August 2019.
Materials discussed include active smart glass such as SPD glass, PDLC glass and electrochromic glass and passive smart glass, such as thermochromic and photochromic glass, as well as other functional materials such as transparent concrete.
Artratio Display Frame in its opaque state
Artratio Display Frame in its transparent state, showing the Waterloo Map at the Royal Engineers Museum, Kent (UK). Inaugurated in June 2015.
ArtRatio delivered a smart glass frame to reduce light damage on the original map of the 1815 Battle of Waterloo at the Royal Engineers Museum. This fragile document still has the pencil markings of the 1st Duke of Wellington on it.
Partnership with Intelligent Glass Solutions (IGS)
Manoj’s first interaction with IGS was via a sponsored article in 2012 describing how SPD smart glass can be used to reduce light exposure on museum materials by controlling the ‘duty cycle’ (on-vs-off time of SPD glass) to reduce the exposure time.
A partnership with IGS was the next logical step due to IGS’s strong presence in the global glass industry and the sheer breadth and depth of their content.
Smart Glass World is now pleased to announce a partnership with IGS which brings our content to IGS readers in the form of articles about technologies, markets and industry leaders in the smart glass sector.
About Manoj Phatak
Manoj’s first experience with glass goes back to the fabrication of optical waveguides as a final year degree project in 1990 at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (Southampton University), which involved cutting and grinding down glass slabs to form the substrate, before using sputtering and photolithography techniques to etch the waveguide by exchanging potassium ions for sodium ions in the glass.
A sponsored student with Ferranti Semiconductors, Manoj worked thereafter as a Trainee Patent Agent in London, representing semiconductor manufacturers at the UK, European and US patent offices.
Manoj’s experience as a manufacturer of smart glass end-products and smart glass distributor allows for a deep understanding of what customers need in order to achieve a return on investment in smart materials.
Manoj is a UK Chartered Engineer with a Bachelors in Electronics Engineering from Southampton University and a Masters in Software Engineering from Oxford University.
Below: ArtRatio delivered a customised smart glass table to a private collector in London in July 2019 to showcase 4 books by Sir Isaac Newton, one of the fathers of classical mechanics.
