Ceres collaborated with Kingsport, Tenn.-based Eastman Chemical Co., benefiting from the firm’s Saflex-brand interlayer solutions and encapsulation know-how, together with Leverkusen, Germany-based materials giant Covestro AG. The parties combined Covestro’s expertise in photopolymer films, Ceres’ digital mastering and HoloFlekt® roll-to-roll replication system, which produces finished films up to 1,200 mm wide, and Eastman’s technique to encapsulate functional films into automotive-approved laminates.
They found a way to incorporate multiple custom-designed holographic optical elements (HOEs) into a single sheet of Covestro’s Bayfol HX® film, which is then laminated with Eastman’s newly developed interlayer stack, to achieve the industry's largest field of view HUD.
Günther Walze, Covestro’s head of holographic lightguiding, said the photopolymeric coating can be tailored with varying properties and thicknesses and applied on different flexible substrates, depending on the customer’s specification. “And in this coating you can write and record optical functions, and that is the key to all those applications we were talking about.”
The partners have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to explore commercial production of the cutting-edge Holographic In-Plane Transparent Display (HIPTD) product. That, they explained, is a laminated hologram solution that allows multiple head-up transparent displays in a single fully laminated windshield, with each display area measuring up to 400 by 300 mm.
In a joint statement, the firms said the MOU builds on years of collaboration, leveraging each company’s technologies to manufacture holographic-enabled transparent HUDs for the automotive market. It enables them “to look into the remaining steps needed to set up and establish the required facilities and manufacturing capacity, ensuring an efficient, market-ready supply chain to meet the planned production timelines of OEMs wishing to adopt the technology for new driver and passenger experiences.”
In doing so, the partnership aims to accelerate the commercialization of the HUD solution, with Eastman leveraging its relationships with automotive OEMs and Tier One automotive glazing suppliers.
A development team from Ford Motor Co. presented the results of their evaluation of the Ceres/Eastman/Covestro solution at an industry conference in the Fall of 2024.