How to achieve Dead Front Printing on Glass?

With the improvement of consumer aesthetic appreciation, the pursuit of beauty is getting higher and higher. More and more people are seeking to add ‘dead front printing’ technology on their electrical display devices.

But, what is it?

Dead front shows how an icon or view area window is ‘’dead’’ from the front view. They appear to blend into the background of the overlay until they illuminated. The icons or VA is only viewable when the LED behind is active.

Dead front effect often used at the display cover glass of smart home automation device, wearables, medical and industrial appliance.

Currently, Saida Glass has three mature ways to reach such effect.

1.Use black tinted glass with black bezel silkscreen printing

Black tinted glass is kind of colored transparent glass which made by adding color pigments to the raw materials in the float process. 

The transmittance is around 15% to 40% with available glass thickness from 1.35/1.6/1.8/2.0/3.0/4.0mm and glass product size within 32inch. 

But due to tinted glass is mainly used for architectural building, the glass itself might have bubble, scratches, not suitable for the glass products with high surface quality requirement.

2.Use black translucent ink to meet the dead front effect on icons or small VA windows with transmittance 15%-20%.  

The black translucent printed area shall follow the black bezel color as close as possible to avoid color deviation when backlit on. 

The translucent layer is around 7um. As transparent ink feature, it is easy to have black dots, foreign substance when back LED on. So, this dead front printing method is only available with area below 30x30mm

3.Tempered Glass + Black OCA bonding + black diffuser + LCM, it is way to reach the dead front effect with a full set LCM assembly. 

The diffuser can be adjusted to meet the touch panel color as close as possible.

All 3 ways can add the surface treatment of Anti-Glare and Anti-Fingerprint and Anti-Reflective.

Saida Glass is a recognized global glass deep processing supplier of high quality, competitive price and punctual delivery time. With customizing glass in a wide variety of areas and specializing in touch panel glass, switch glass panel, AG/AR/AF/ITO/FTO glass for indoor & outdoor touch screen.