When a voltage is applied across the coating, the window darkens, allowing less light to enter but still permitting a view.

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The cladding is a weatherproof coating applied to the outside of the buildings which is a few millimetres thick, a housing association spokesman said.

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Adopted the glass "Fit Glass" strengthening of scratch resistant Corning, dirt is easy to wipe further coating is applied.

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In the new design, the cover glass is fully laminated to the LCD and an anti-reflective coating is applied using a high-precision plasma deposition process.

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Put to the test last year, the superhard coating was applied to plates on a 20-ton mining rock-crusher and reduced jagged boulders to pebbles for 48 hours before wearing out.

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Lin, an expert in nanostructure photonics and a pioneer in the field of photonic crystals, says that the new coating could be applied to just about any photovoltaic material.

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LiquiGlide is a high-tech coating that, when applied to a container renders it effectively friction-free.

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"Our coating method is simple, and it can be applied in the future in large-area manufacturing processes, " said Rui Zhu, a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA Engineering and the paper's lead author.

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