Corning Incorporated, the company behind the tough ‘Gorilla Glass’ used on many mobile phones, has launched a new flexible glass that it’s calling Corning Willow Glass. The new material can be ‘wrapped’ around a device and processed at high temperatures, making it suitable for smartphones, tablets, notebook computers and ‘smart surfaces’ such as touch-controlled walls.
Dr Dipak Chowdhury, Corning’s division vice president and Willow Glass program director, said “Displays become more pervasive each day and manufacturers strive to make both portable devices and larger displays thinner. Corning Willow Glass provides the substrate performance to maintain device quality in a thin and light form factor. Currently manufacturing in a sheet-to-sheet process, we expect Corning Willow Glass to eventually allow customers to switch to high throughput, efficient roll-to-roll processing, a long-awaited industry milestone.”
Corning Willow Glass is produced using the company’s proprietary fusion process, which enables it to produce glass that is 100 microns thick: about the thickness of a sheet of paper.