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Gorilla glass goes for a car ride

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Gorilla glass goes for a car ride

Gorilla glass goes for a car ride

Corning, which manufactures Gorilla Glass, the super-tough glass for mobile electronic devices, has developed a specialized version of the glass that could end up in your next new car. The company says its Gorilla Glass for Automotive division is working with a number of auto manufacturers to deliver a superior glass product that’s specially designed for automobiles.

Glass is naturally heavy, but Corning says that the automotive version of its signature tough product is lightweight and will support manufacturers’ desire to incorporate displays into the driver’s visual space. The company says it will offer Gorilla Glass for both structural and interior automotive applications.

Automakers are under significant pressure to improve gas mileage, and one way to do that is by reducing the weight of the vehicle. According to Corning, automotive Gorilla Glass is one-third lighter than conventional auto glass. Depending upon the vehicle size and its design, windows can add 100-150 pounds to the finished weight of a vehicle. By reducing the weight of the vehicle, automakers can not only improve gas mileage, but also reduce the vehicle’s emissions.

Reducing the weight of the glass also has other design and performance benefits. Reduced weight can improve acceleration and vehicle handing. Corning also says that windshields made of Gorilla Glass can eliminate 50% of the vehicle glass breakage that occurs today. That could reduce the total cost of ownership of a vehicle, and could also reduce comprehensive insurance costs for drivers.

Corning also says that automotive Gorilla Glass is clearer than conventional auto glass. The clarity of the glass also enables automakers to incorporate larger, brighter head-up displays. In addition, Gorilla Glass can be more easily formed into curves and 3-D shapes, allowing the designers enormous flexibility in displays, controls and the outward appearance of the vehicle. The company also says that its glass will provide better, more responsive touch controls.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Corning

Corning puts Gorilla Glass in Automobiles

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Corning puts Gorilla Glass in Automobiles

Corning puts Gorilla Glass in Automobiles

If you have a mobile device, chances are very good that it uses Corning’s Gorilla Glass to protect its touch screen. Gorilla Glass has been used in more than 4.5 billion mobile devices. Corning has just announced that Gorilla Glass is making its debut in the ultimate mobile device: the automobile.

Gorilla Glass featured in center consoles

You might think that break-resistant glass is an obvious choice for a car, but you won’t find Gorilla Glass in windshields anytime soon. Gorilla Glass will be incorporated into a full glass center console developed by Faurecia and on display at the Paris Motor Show this month.

According to Faurecia, the Gorilla Glass will be used in a cold-formed touchscreen cover for the company’s “Smart Pebbles” configurable console application. The console contains the vehicle’s entire instrument display cluster, as well as an airflow management system. The console application supports autonomous driving, as well as conventional driving, and is fully touch controllable.

When a vehicle is in autonomous driving mode, the system activates a second screen and produces a tabletop which the occupants can use for storage, work, eating or leisure activities.

The glass cover is 3-dimensional, and can be formed in any shape. The touchscreens use AMOLED lighting, and can interface with other mobile devices. The Smart Pebbles system also includes seating controls and amenities designed to improve the comfort of the cabin.

Corning and Faurecia believe that consumers want their vehicle displays to function similarly to current smart phones, and have designed the Smart Pebbles applications to duplicate the smart phone experience. Cold-formed glass is less expensive to manufacture, a consideration that will be attractive to automotive manufacturers. The improved visibility of the AMOLED displays under the Gorilla Glass also means that the displays can be flush mounted; they will not require additional dimensional shading to maintain visibility, even in direct sunlight.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specialized glass coating that bonds permanently to glass surfaces. GlassPrimer also makes a glass surface molecular activator that is designed to work with UV-inkjet glass printing processes. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store

Photo Credit: Faurecia

Gorilla glass for wearable technology

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Gorilla glass for wearable technology

Gorilla glass for wearable technology

Wearable technology is making a play for a bigger piece of the mobile market share. According to Gartner and other industry analysts, the wearable technology market will grow to $150B or bigger in the next decade. With that much wearable technology around, that means an awful lot of glass. Corning has recently announced its latest version of Gorilla Glass – Gorilla Glass SR+ – designed especially for wearable technology.

Given the rugged and unpredictable environment that the trackers may find themselves in, the use of Gorilla Glass SR+ and other specially formulated glass displays makes sense. Currently, one in five adults in the US own at least one wearable device, and the market is poised for tremendous growth.

Gorilla Glass SR+ is designed specifically for wearable technology. The new formulation is specially scratch resistant and improves visibility for small displays. Currently, Gorilla glass is used to protect more than 1,800 mobile/wearable devices on the market.

Unlike mobile devices – where the danger for the display is in being dropped – glass in wearable devices has to be strong enough to withstand daily wear and the little knocks and abrasions that go along with it. Most wearable technology is oriented toward fitness tracking, or extending or substitute for a mobile phone.

Wearable technology certainly isn’t new, but designers are reformulating technology to manage many things. One could argue that glasses, contact lenses and hearing aids are forms of wearable technology. In fact, they are, but the combination of miniaturized computing power and small packaging opens up new applications.

In addition to “smart watches” and activity trackers, wearable technology could encompass medical monitoring, data synchronization, navigational assistance and even as a way to monitor the alertness of drivers and machine operators. Some companies have already used facial recognition technology to spot fatigue in machine operators, allowing them to intercede before an accident occurs.
The success of the wearable technology market depends heavily on the strength and function of glass.

Glassprimer™ glass paint is a specially formulated paint product that adheres permanently to glass surfaces. Once cured, Glassprimer™ glass paint will not chip, fade or peel, and offers superior UV-resistance in both residential and commercial applications. Glassprimer™ glass paint is suitable for use in both interior and exterior settings. For more information about Glassprimer™ glass paint please visit our website. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Mike Mozart, via Flickr.com

Vibrant Gorilla Glass has arrived

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Vibrant Gorilla Glass has arrived

Vibrant Gorilla Glass has arrived

In April, Corning announced that it had developed a new product, which it calls Vibrant Gorilla Glass, for use in mobile devices. If you’re familiar with Gorilla Glass, you know that it’s widely used in the mobile device industry – there are (literally) about 4 billion mobile devices that use Gorilla Glass today. Gorilla Glass is a specially formulated glass that is exceptionally good at resisting breakage, which is why it’s so heavily used in mobile devices.

Gorilla Glass claims more mobile real estate

Vibrant Gorilla Glass is a bit of a departure from Gorilla Glass. First, it’s not a new and/or improved version of Gorilla Glass. It uses the current version of the product. Second, it’s not meant for the front of a mobile device, where the other 4 billion pieces of Gorilla Glass have gone. Vibrant Gorilla Glass is meant for the cases, covers and backsides of mobile devices.

The company is betting that the value of putting Gorilla Glass on the backside of a device is that it will allow manufacturers to customize their cases and covers in a way that wasn’t possible before. In short, Corning is bringing back painting to mobile device cases. Using specially designed ink that bonds to glass, manufacturers can incorporate low-glare, photorealistic images into their mobile device cases and covers. Because the image is applied to the backside of the glass, the customized images and branding designs won’t chip, wear or fade.

Acer has already announced that it intends to offer Vibrant Gorilla Glass as an option on its new Chromebook 14 for Work, but also says that a minimum order of 1,000 units is required for customized orders. Ultimately, that means that highly customized images won’t be filtering down to the individual level anytime soon, but Acer may still offer a range of cover options for individuals that include the Vibrant Gorilla Glass product.

Corning also says that it is in talks with a number of other manufacturers who are interested in offering a Vibrant Gorilla Glass cover or case. The company is also considering extending the technology to after-market cases that are designed to slip over ordinary device covers.

Backpainting is nothing new, but it does point to a rise in interest in backpainted displays. You can make your own backpainted designs, using Glassprimer™ glass paint on glass surfaces around your home. You can also use Glassprimer™ glass surface molecular activator to improve the results of digital printing on glass surfaces.

For more information about our glass surface coatings, please visit the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: , via FreeImages.com

Gorilla glass: What is it?!

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Gorilla glass: What is it?!

Gorilla glass: What is it?!

You may have heard of the term “Gorilla glass,” and wondered what it is. In a nutshell, Gorilla glass is a brand name for a specialized glass product made by Corning. It is designed to be lightweight, resistant to damage and thin. It’s not the kind of glass you’d want to use around the house, and it’s not something you’d want to apply glass paint to, but you probably carry some of it around with you in a pocket or purse every time you carry your smartphone.

What Gorilla glass can do

Gorilla glass – in one form or another – has been around much longer than you think. Corning first started experimenting with different formulations of glass, looking for ways to strengthen it. What they developed was a product they sold under the Chemcor brand, called “muscled glass.” It was a specialty product that was used in automobiles and airplanes, industrial applications and in the pharmaceutical industry until the 1990’s, when it was replaced by other glass formulations.

But while “Gorilla glass” may have fallen out of vogue, it wasn’t forgotten. Ten years later, electronics manufacturers –most noticeably Apple – began to develop iPads and iPods- all with glass covers that were prone to breakage. So, Corning introduced Apple to Chemcor glass. The old Chemcor formulation produced glass that was too thick for the handheld devices we all know and love, but Corning began tinkering with the old Chemcor formula, and the rest is history. By 2008, the new, thin and almost scratchless “Gorilla glass” formulation was in production, and now sells at a rate of more than $1B per year.

But Corning hasn’t forgotten about Gorilla glass’s Chemcor roots. And apparently neither has the Ford Motor Company. Ford is using the Gorilla glass formulation for the front and rear windshields in the 2016 Ford GT. The glass reduces the weight of the car by 12 pounds without compromising the strength of the windshield. (A windshield can weigh 40 pounds or more.)

According to the Ford Motor Company, the new windshield formulation is actually a hybrid of three different layers – one layer of Corning automotive Gorilla glass, a thermoplastic layer and an annealed glass layer. A traditional windshield consists of just two layers – a thermoplastic layer and a layer of annealed glass. This approach to making automotive glass was developed by Henry Ford, and has been in use for more than 100 years.

While Gorilla glass isn’t something you’d use for decorating (yet, anyway), it does underscore the versatility of glass, and how changes in the basic formulation can really change what glass can do!

If you’d like more information about working with Glassprimer™ glass paint, please check out the rest of our site. If you’d like to purchase Glassprimer™ glass paint, please visit our online store .

Photo Credit: Ford Motor Company