There are high chances the device you’re reading this piece has a Gorilla Glass screen, which is one of the strongest on the market. And the good news doesn’t stop here, because the technology is moving into cars soon. It’s being tested and the Mythbusters are helping.
What’s so special with this type of glass? It’s simply tougher than regular glass and it’s amazing how much the gap is between the stuff we had 10 years ago and this. That’s because they are made using a more complex technique than simply melting some sand.
And we say “they” we’re referring to US glassmaker Corning Inc., the company that trademarked Gorilla Glass. The manufacturing process uses molten alkaline salt bath immersions using ion exchange to produce compressive residual stress at the surface of the glass.
What language are you speaking?
OK, it sounds complicated. Let me put it in another way. Imagine glass before the ion exchange bath as a flexible but taut net, with each of the holes holding a golf ball.
The balls are sodium atoms and after the bath, they’re replaced with “baseball sized” potassium atoms, process that creates a huge compression inside the aluminosilicate glass.
The tension between the atoms is so tight now that it can’t be easily disturbed by other metals coming in contact with them, say the keys you stubbornly wear in the same pocket your phone is. Same goes for impacts, which can’t break the atoms’ bonding that easily as with normal glass.
Gorilla Glass windshields coming soon
This type of high strength glass is being improved continuously and it will soon reach the automotive industry, where it will be used for the windows and windshields of mass-produced passenger vehicles.
In fact, the company is currently experimenting with Gorilla Glass reinforced windshields, which you’re going to see in the video bellow as The Mythbusters are going to test it using a compressed air cannon.
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