Ford adopts Magna’s new seamless rear window

Ford Motor Company showcased the "seamless sliding rear window" developed by Canadian auto supplier Magna International for the new 2015 Ford F-150 pickup truck.

The original sliding glass rear window required three pieces of glass and an elaborate plastic frame support structure and sealing material, which was complicated to assemble and prone to quality problems and leaks.

When Ford began designing its next-generation Ford F-150, it held a design competition to come up with a better solution. One supplier emerged as the clear winner and that was Magna.

Magna provided a technology called "hole-in-glass," which led to the 2015 F-150's "seamless sliding rear window."

Lighter and easier to install

The new windows have many advantages: They are about 4.5 percent lighter, can be installed on a single assembly line, the rear of the car looks cleaner and streamlined, and they continue to defrost whether the windows are open or closed.

"Magna's hole-in-glass technology gives us a flat, seamless look" for the rear window, said Noah Mass, Ford's manager of exterior structures.

Magna worked with its Tier 2 supplier, Pittsburgh Glass Works, Inc. to develop the technology, which uses high-pressure jets of water to drill holes in the window glass.

Troy Tooker, Magna's design engineering manager, said the technology is expensive, so Magna needs a high-volume vehicle program to amortize the cost.

About 25 percent of F-150 buyers currently choose to add sliding glass panels, and Ford expects the new car's new seamless windows to increase that to 40 percent.

The 2015 F-150 is scheduled to go on sale later this year.

Ford is also using the technology in the pop-up windows of the new Ford Transit commercial van.

Magna Patent

Magna holds multiple patents on the technology, Tooker said. One of the important patents concerns a continuously operable rear window defroster. The older F-150's sliding rear window didn't activate the defrost function when the window was slightly open, while the newer one defrosts regardless of whether the window is open or not.

The new window assembly weighs 20.74 pounds, about 4.5 percent lighter than the old model's 21.73 pounds. It might sound trivial, but Ford asked Magna to find weight-saving opportunities wherever possible.

In total, the new F-150 will be 700 pounds lighter than the old model, largely thanks to the replacement of a steel body with an aluminum body.

After Ford debuted the F-150's seamless rear window at the Detroit auto show in January, a host of other automakers have expressed interest and approached Magna.

He said the technology does not grant an exclusive license to Ford, so Magna could have other customers. Ford and Magna jointly said they are looking for other suitable applications for the technology.