So yesterday, for reasons unknown to anyone, my galaxy nexus screen cracked. It was just in my bag and when I took it out, there was a spiderweb of cracks on the screen. Something must have probably cracked.
As you may imagine, I was quite distressed and almost immediately went onto the web and started researching whether or not the screen was replaceable/ repairable. Something that quite a few people were irritated about was the Galaxy Nexus’s lack of Gorilla Glass on its screen.
I had heard of gorilla glass before, but I wasn’t entirely sure what it was, so I decided to find out. Basically, Gorilla Glass is a special type glass that’s primarily used for things like computers, tablets, smartphones, and other electronic devices. What’s so special about this particular type of glass (apart from the name) is that it’s very light and very resistant to impact and scratches.
Naturally, I wanted to know how exactly it was that instead of normal glass, Corning managed to manufacture superglass instead. It turns out that the prcoess is actually quite an involved one. Corning takes silicon dioxide (or sand) and then combines it with Aluminum as well as Sodium ions. This molten glass is then poured into a trough which is V-Shaped. It keeps pouring, and once the glass is overflowing, robotic arms begin to pull sheets of glass out of the edge of the trough. These sheets are about half a millimeter thick, and aren’t very strong just yet. Corning makes them strong by dipping them into a bath of potassium ions, at about 400 degrees celsius. The purpose of this is basically to replace the sodium ions in the glass sheets they made before with potassium ions. The intense heat is enough to break the bonds of the sodium ions, but not the potassium ions. This means that the glass emerges, compressed by potassium ions. This compression is what provides the protective layer.
There’s another benefit to gorilla glass apart from its incredible strength. It’s also very thin, and this means that if you incorporate it into your device, it’ll be a bit thinner, which is always nice. Apart from just mobile devices, numerous TV manufacturers are also looking into making their TVs more durable with Gorilla Glass.
I know that the iPhone uses Gorilla Glass, but I’ve always taken the touchscreen of the iPhone for granted until I found out about how complex a procedure it is to make the glass. Yes, I know the iPhone is nearly indestructible, but now that I’ve had a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at it, it’s a lot more jaw dropping.
Abzonnian Ramblings 