Gauzy Ltd. a new industrial development approach in PDLC technology

Abstract

During the past three decades, the industrial development and commercialisation of Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) technology has been in continuous evolution worldwide. In this period, when the industrial evolution of the field has been the subject of cycles of progresses and setbacks, it has witnessed the appearance and disappearance of many PDLC film and glass producers. Currently, there are over 15 PDLC film manufacturers and many more glass suppliers worldwide, creating a business turnover of more than $360million. During the first two decades, the global growth of the field had not been according to much anticipation. Only the past decade has witnessed a surge of worldwide demand and rapid growth. The most important factors responsible for the slow industrial growth of PDLC technology during the early development period had been the price, patent and, most of all, the business strategy of PDLC film producers. The details of the evolution history and market status of PDLC technology have been reported elsewhere [1,2]. The business models of the current PDLC film producers are either based on: a) the sales of film products to the glass processors without any transformation or installation knowledge and involvement to the final PDLC glass product or b) those who are also producing PDLC glass in-house, approach the end-use market alone. Besides these traditional business models, we identified a newcomer in the field with a different business model, namely Gauzy Ltd., which is briefly dealt with in the report.