Gorilla Glass is a brand of specialized toughened glass developed and manufactured by Corning. Gorilla Glass is an ideal cover sheet for touch screens which is accurate, clean, smooth and excellent optical clarity. Depending on the application and manufacturer specifications, it can be produced from 0.4 mm to 2 mm in thickness. Gorilla Glass is chemically strong through an ion-exchange process which creates a deep compression layer on the surface of the glass substrate. This layer acts as a “shield” to reduce the introduction of flaws.
During the Ion exchange the glass is kept in hot baths of molten salt at a temperature of about 400 degrees Celsius. Small sodium ions leave the glass, and larger potassium ions replace them with salt bath. These large ions take more room to produce a layer of compressed stress on the surface of the glass, when the glass becomes calm. The special structure of Gorilla Glass enables the potassium ions to spread in the surface, resulting in deep complexities in the glass. This layer of compression forms a surface that is resistant to damage from everyday use.
Gorilla Glass is crack resistance because of its surface strength but it is not perfect. The sand is its biggest enemy. The Mohs scale ranks mineral hardness from 1 to 10. The hardness of diamond is 10 which is the highest and the hardness of sand is 9. The hardness of Gorilla Glass is 6 to 6.5 which is less than the hardness of sand. In daily use, if the glass is dropped or exposed to sand or dust then it can be easily scratched. On the other hand, sapphire is a hard, transparent material made of crystalline aluminum oxide which is 9 on the Mohs scale of mineral hardness that means it can’t be scratched as easily as Gorilla Glass.
No comments:
Post a Comment