Corning Inc. has presented the fourth generation of its Gorilla Glass, claiming that it is two times tougher than its predecessor, re-defining the standards in damage resistance with its new product. According to the press release the company published today, the new version of the damage resistant glass is up to two times better than any competitor’s product when dropped on rough surfaces.
According to the press release, before the creation of the new, tougher glass, Corning’s scientists have examined hundreds of broken devices and found that the damage was caused by a sharp contact – an elevated corner on the sidewalk, a protuberance of some type – in more than 70% of the cases. Based on these experiences they have developed a new drop test method, better simulating real life break events, based on thousands of hours of simulations and analysis. They dropped devices face down from one meter, leading to the glass coming to direct contact with the rough surface. Their findings were that soda-lime glass (or the common glass) used as a screen cover for a series of devices available, will break almost every time it lands on its face, while Gorilla Glass survives almost 80% of the times.
The first generation of Gorilla Glass has been launched in 2007, and since then it has saved the integrity of thousands of devices. With Gorilla Glass 4 the company has focused on significantly improving protection against sharp contact damage, the primary reason why mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets break. The new generation of the shock-resistant glass is manufactured using the company’s proprietary “fusion draw” process, keeping the thinness and durability of the glass while making it more resistant to drops. The glass is used by over 40 manufacturers for more than 1,300 of their products, protecting billions of them from fall damage for years.