In November last year, Corning announced their Gorilla Glass 4, which is about twice as tough as it’s predecessor Gorilla Glass 3. The new material can be made 25% thinner but they have made a lot less headway in making it scratch proof.
Many smartphones, inclusive of Apple’s iPhones and Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones already features Gorilla Glass as a standard feature, and the company is making a brand new Gorilla Glass-like composite material that has the toughness of their signature glass but with a scratch resistance close to that of Sapphire. Sapphire is a great material as it it’s very scratch resistant but it’s unfortunately more prone to shattering when taking fall damage.
The project is dubbed Project Phire and was announced last week at a New York investor meeting by Corning executive James Clappin, but was dropped with very few details.
“We told you last year that sapphire was great for scratch performance but didn’t fare well when dropped,” Clappin, president of Corning Glass Technologies, told the crowd at the event. “So, we created a product that offers the same superior damage resistance and drop performance of Gorilla Glass 4 with scratch resistance that approaches sapphire.”
The company makes most of it’s revenue from making glass for TV displays and fiber-optics so their smartphone glass production has been good for their growth, with Gorilla Glass being standard issue for a vast majority of mobile devices due to it’s ability to take falls of up to 1 meter in height.
Apple was rumoured to be featuring a sapphire glass screen for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus but decided to scratch that last minute because they couldn’t withstand drop tests. But the Apple Watch however will be featuring a sapphire screen, for some versions of the wearable.
Project Phire might be what Corning needs to keep itself ahead of the game, and hopefully our devices from turning into modern art if we accidentally drop them.
[SOURCE]
