The EV Charger Panel That Tested Our Skills

If you’re in our line of work, you know the most exciting projects aren't always the biggest ones—they're the ones that make you scratch your head at first. That was exactly the case with this recent EV charger cover panel we worked on.

The client came to us with a vision: the front panel of their new charging station needed to be more than just a piece of Glass. It had to be the sleek, unmissable face of their brand and a high-tech window for its hidden sensors. Honestly, we loved the challenge.

The Challenge:

Looking at the specs, we knew this would be a tightrope walk. The panel was an irregular shape, which is always trickier than a standard rectangle. On top of that, it was incredibly thin at just 1.6mm—handling that without a hitch requires a gentle touch and perfect processes.

Then came the real puzzle: the printing. We needed to layer a solid black background with sharp white icons on top, all while leaving specific, perfectly clear “windows” for infrared light. These IR zones couldn’t just be kind of clear; they needed to achieve 85% IR transparency to let the charger's internal systems see and communicate without any interference. Getting all three of these elements—the black, the white, and the invisible—to play nicely together on one ultra-thin, irregular piece of glass was the core of our mission.

So, how did we tackle it? It came down to careful coordination and a few key strengths in our shop.

1. First, we got the shape right. Cutting this delicate, 1.6mm glass into its unique form was step one. Our team and equipment are set up for this kind of precision work, ensuring every panel came out exactly to spec, with clean edges and no stress points.
2. Then, we danced with the ink. The printing process felt like a carefully choreographed dance. We laid down the dense black ink first to create that perfect, seamless backdrop. Then, in a separate pass, we aligned the white graphics with pinpoint accuracy. The margin for error here was tiny—even a slight misalignment would mean a blurry icon. Holding our breath during this stage was pretty much standard procedure.
3. Finally, we engineered the "see-through" bits. Creating those high-transmission IR zones was the most satisfying part. It’s not about skipping the printer; it’s about applying a specialized material that blocks visible light (so it looks black to your eye) but allows infrared to pass through freely reaching to 85%. 

Got a glass project that's keeping you up at night? We thrive on interesting challenges. Reach out, and let's see what we can build together.