Corning Gorilla Glass

Features: Current EventsCritical Path Innovation: Materials ScienceInstitutions: CorningProducts: Gorilla Glass

Gorilla Glass is a product from Corning. Originally developed in 1960, it was then called 'Chemcor'. Corning made only two changes to the composition of the glass in order to re-release it as Gorilla Glass in 2008.

What makes this glass neat is that it is wicked strong. The glass is 2 to 3 times stronger than other versions of lime-soda glass, even at half the thickness. According to Corning's website, "Currently, Gorilla glass is available as-drawn in thicknesses ranging from .5 mm – 2.0 mm." This additional thinness can make products such as televisions lighter and less expensive to ship. It is currently in use in some handheld and touch screen devices.

The process by which the glass is made sounds pretty neat too:

"Corning devised an ingenious method called "fusion draw" to make super-thin, unvaryingly flat glass. It pumped hot glass into a suspended trough and allowed it to overflow and run down either side. The glass flows then meet under the trough and fuse seamlessly into a smooth, hanging sheet of glass.

To make Chemcor, Corning ran the sheets through a "tempering" process that set up internal stresses in the material. The same principle is behind the toughness of Pyrex glass, but Chemcor was tempered in a chemical bath, not by heat treatment."


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