The engineers over at Corning (Apple’s current supplier for the glass screens on iOS devices) has just released a video ad campaign boasting the resistance of its material, Gorilla Glass 4. Corning has claimed that the material is up to twice as strong as competing products.
It’s a horrible moment, seeing an iPhone has been dropped face-down; not knowing whether or not the screen will be in one piece. This has been a serious challenge for glass manufacturers, who have been constantly pushing the boundaries of how much punishment a thin sheet of glass can take.
What the video doesn’t show, is Corning’s research into what actually causes breakages of this kind. They created a testing environment that simulated drops from a height of one meter. The surface the device was dropped onto drastically affected the chance of a break. Most often, the break is caused by contact with a sharp or rough surface, like concrete.
Gorilla Glass 4, Corning claims, is able to survive drops onto such rough surfaces 80% of the time whereas competing products will break on these surfaces in almost every instance.
Following the fall from grace experienced by Apple’s would-be supplier of Sapphire Glass – GTAT – now is a perfect opportunity for Corning to re-assert Gorilla Glass as the material of choice for smartphone manufacturers.
What better way to do it, than with squabbling Gorillas?