Gorilla Glass Maker Corning Debuts Flexible Willow Glass
First Gorilla Glass, then Lotus Glass and now Corning is working on Willow Glass.
Most of us know Corning as the maker of Gorilla Glass, the super tough glass that's become an almost ubiquitous feature when it comes large-screened smartphones of today. Usually focused on all things tough and scratch resistant, Corning is today taking things in a different direction with the unveiling of Willow Glass, a new flexible solution aimed at ultra slim designs.
Corning says that, as well as its use in slimmer display designs, the company says the strength and flexibility means we could also see Willow Glass used in curved or wraparound displays. Willow Glass can be processed at temperatures up to 500 degrees Celsius, which opens up the possibility of high-temperature, continuous 'roll-to-roll' processes. Corning says these have so far been impossible. Additionally, thanks to advancements in fusion forming, they can make glass that measures just 100 microns thick, or about as thick as a regular sheet of copy paper.
"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," said Dr. Dipak Chowdhury, division vice president and Willow Glass program director. "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 says Willow Glass is initially being launched as an advanced display substrate, however, the company is also actively working on other uses for the glass, such as in lighting and flexible solar cells. Samples of Willow Glass are shipping to companies developing new display and touch applications but full production won't begin for a while.


Probably being bent holding it. Regular glass is actually very flexible. It's the thickness which prevents it from flexing (the greater the thickness, the greater the elongation of the outer edge in a bend, and glass is very brittle when it comes to elongation). If you can make glass very thin, its flexibility really shows. Fiberglass and optical communications fibers are good examples of its flexibility.
My concern would be what the shards are like when it breaks. Fiberglass and optical fibers can be looped into a very small radius circle. But if you make the radius smaller (like tying it in a knot), it will fracture, and the ends are rather sharp. It is still glass. In all likelihood this will have to be coated with a plastic layer like car windshield glass to prevent it from shattering into a thousand paper-thin shards with razor edges.
Unfortunately Apple has got their company so far up their ass that the tape worms keep fending off all the things that could help make the iPhone better overall. Like this type of glass.
Probably being bent holding it. Regular glass is actually very flexible. It's the thickness which prevents it from flexing (the greater the thickness, the greater the elongation of the outer edge in a bend, and glass is very brittle when it comes to elongation). If you can make glass very thin, its flexibility really shows. Fiberglass and optical communications fibers are good examples of its flexibility.
My concern would be what the shards are like when it breaks. Fiberglass and optical fibers can be looped into a very small radius circle. But if you make the radius smaller (like tying it in a knot), it will fracture, and the ends are rather sharp. It is still glass. In all likelihood this will have to be coated with a plastic layer like car windshield glass to prevent it from shattering into a thousand paper-thin shards with razor edges.
Well said, it isn't just apple but many other companies that either just don't care about quality or make a extra buck at all costs.
My grandfather worked in the automotive glass industry and would be amazed to hear about this stuff.
First off glass is highly transparent, far more so than plastic.
Glass is fairly immune to ultraviolet degradation, plastic tends to be more susceptible leading to transparency, strength and brittleness issues.
The hardest plastics are less scratch resistant than most glasses.
Glass has a lower coefficient of thermal expansion than the majority of flexible plastics.
I could go on and on, but that would be tl;dr
Others can add to the list if they want.
Q
My favorite thing that isheep complain about is android and how they have cheap plastic backs. I personally would rather have a cheep plastic, metal backing than a glass back that shatters from the smallest drop. The iPhone is so far behind in technology and cheap glass that shatters easily so they can charge more money is not helping their status.