Lead free mirrors and environmentally safe manufacture thereof

Abstract From the Canadian patent

Mirrors are formed in an environmentally compatible and substantially pollution-free manner by a sputtering process in which a transparent substrate (10) such as glass has first sputtered upon it a primer layer (12) and then a reflective layer (14) of silver or other bright reflective metal. A barrier layer (16) is provided over the reflective layer (14) to protect the latter from corrosive environments. If the transmittance of the reflective layer (14) is greater than zero percent the barrier layer (16) includes a, different bright reflective metal sufficient to reduce the transmittance of the combined reflective and barrier layers to zero percent. The mirror includes a lead-free polymeric …