Friday, February 10, 2017

Oh, patents! Corning® Gorilla® Glass

Copyright © Françoise Herrmann

Chances are that the glass on your tablet, smartwatch or smartphone boasts the “superior damage resistance, optical clarity and touch sensitivity” that is the stuff of Corning® Gorilla® glass!  If you are not sure, try the Corning® lookup page

Perhaps that the windshield, sunroof and dashboard on your car, might already be equipped with the latest Gorilla® glass product unveiled at CES 2017, specially designed for cars. A new Gorilla® glass product that is ever lighter, tougher and more optically advantageous to enable greater fuel efficiency, passenger safety and better performance for the driver [CES2017].

Corning® has been designing the toughest glass on earth, trademarked Gorilla® glass since the first generation of Iphones circa 2007. Since then Corning® has developed several generations of different sorts of Gorilla® glass, including:
  • Five categories of Corning® Gorilla® glass with ever higher drop protection and resistance to damage, Gorilla® Glass 5 offering the highest shoulder height drop protection on a hard surface; 
  • An antimicrobial Corning® Gorilla® glass for frequently touched public glass surfaces, that contains a built-in ionic silver component to keep the glass bacteria-free;
  • Corning® Gorilla® glass NBT™ for “touch-enabled notebooks” with increased scratch and shock resistance;
  • Large Cover Corning® Gorilla® glass for digital signage and market boards;
  • Vibrant Corning® Gorilla® glass for printing colorful designs on glass.

The following list includes some of the most recent patent applications disclosing the Corning® Gorilla® glass invention and some of its newest patentable aspects. The core of the Corning® Gorilla® glass invention is chemical strengthening of the alkali aluminosilicate glass through an ion-exchange process that forms a compressed and super hard surface armor, or layer. This layer is extremely resistant to scratching and cracking from drops or other forms of fracture, compared to other glass products on the market. Gorilla® glass is also very thin and light, ranging from 0.4 to 2 mm, and compatible with haptic feedback.
  • US2017029325 (A1) ― 2017-02-02 - Antimicrobial and strengthened glass articles through pressurized ion exchange
  • US2017022093 (A1) ― 2017-01-26 - Glass articles exhibiting improved fracture performance 
  • US2017022092 (A1) ― 2017-01-26 - Glass articles exhibiting improved fracture performance
  • US2016376186 (A1) ― 2016-12-29 - Glass with high surface strength
  • US2016376187 (A1) ― 2016-12-29 - Glass with high surface strength
  • US2016368812 (A1) ― 2016-12-22 - Strengthened glass articles and methods of making
  • US2016280591 (A1) ― 2016-09-29 - Methods for producing ion-exchanged glass and
    resulting apparatus 
And of course, no Gorilla® glass could exist without a cute gorilla to pitch the sale! 👠

  
References
Corning® Gorilla® Glass
Is it on yours?
CES 2017: Gorilla Glass is moving from Phone to automobiles. 

No comments: