What is Gorilla glass and Why it is so Tough?

Gorilla glass is a very thin and tough glass which is a product of Corning, an American glass manufacturer company, therefore it is also known as Corning Gorilla Glass. It is an alkali aluminosilicate sheet glass. The glass is damage and scratch resistant, and is more expensive than a normal glass. It is used in high end smartphones, tablets, PC’s and LCD’s. Some of the popular devices using Gorilla glass are – Samsung Galaxy S II, Samsung Galaxy Note, LG Optimus 2X.

What makes Gorilla Glass so Tough?

Gorilla glass is toughened by a chemical process called ion exchange. The glass is put in molten potassium salt where at a temperature of approx. 400 degree celcius (~ 750 F), smaller ions leave the glass and larger potassium ions replaces them. These larger ions takes more room and are pressed together. When the glass cools a layer of compress stress is found on the surface of glass. The special composition of glass enables potassium ions to diffuse far into the surface, creating high compressive stress deep into the glass. This layer of compression makes the surface of the glass more resistant to damage in everyday use.

Corning Gorilla Glass 2

In the beginning of 2012, corning has announced to release a new version of Gorilla glass which will be 20 percent thinner. The thinner glass will be much more responsive and sensitive to touch. There is also an increasing demand for phones having Gorilla Glass display.

Corning Gorilla Glass 3

Gorilla Glass 3 is the latest version of Gorilla Glass that has unique Native Damage Resistant (NDR) Technology and is more damage resistant, durable, tougher and thinner than the previous Gorilla Glass 2. Corning has said that the new Gorilla Glass 3 is up to three times more damage resistant than Gorilla Glass 2.

Corning Gorilla Glass 4

Gorilla Glass 4 is the latest entry in the Corning’s Gorilla Glass segment. The new thing in Gorilla Glass 4 is its ability to withstand harsh or rough drops. When you drop your phone from a decent height on rough surfaces then the glass screen of your phone gets cracked or breaks, but Gorilla Glass 4 is able to withstand such drops two times better than its competitive glasses. Corning has also claimed that Gorilla Glass 4 can survive such rough drops on sharp objects to up to 80 percent of the time. All the other properties of Gorilla Glass 4 like thinness, durability and optical clarity remains the same as Gorilla Glass 3.

Corning Gorilla Glass 5

Gorilla Glass 5 is the successor of Gorilla Glass 4 and it is much stronger and durable than Gorilla Glass 4 and Gorilla Glass 3. Gorilla Glass 5 is so strong that it can survive crashes on hard and rough surface 80% of the time if dropped from a height of 1.6 meters. It is also 4X better than the competitive glasses in drop failure test.

Learn about Corning Vibrant Gorilla Glass

List of All Phones with Gorilla Glass 4