![]() Smaller sodium ions leave the glass and are replaced by larger potassium ions, creating compression within the glass itself.įlexible electronics are already making some headway, but not in a way that’s obvious to consumers. It is then run through a bath of molten potassium. The glass is drawn down out of a huge, molten tank into sheets and run through rollers. Schott is the first company to make ultrathin glass that can be chemically strengthened by ion exchange, which was a challenge, says Eric Urruti, vice president of R&D at Schott North America in Pennsylvania. To make glass thinner and thinner-and therefore more flexible-glassmakers have to figure out how to strengthen it. Researchers at Corning make 40-50 new experimental glass formulations every day. Gorilla Glass and other products made by both companies are toughened through a process called ion exchange. To make it work, Schott had to develop new methods that built on those already used to make ultrastrong glass like Corning’s Gorilla Glass, which is found on the surface of many smartphones. That fragility is why mass production of flexible glass has been so challenging. “About two years ago you wouldn’t have been able to handle it like that,” he says. When they first started experimenting with making glass this thin, it used to break much more easily, Sprengard explains. It’s still glass, after all, and she’s not wearing any eye protection. ![]() As I’m flopping it around in my hands, treating it like a piece of plastic, one of the company representatives steps back. Paper is about 100 micrometers thick this sheet is 70 micrometers. It doesn’t fold yet, but Sprengard says they’re working on it and hope to have it in a few years.Īfter giving me gloves and goggles, Sprengard hands me a sheet that’s about the size of a sheet of office paper, but thinner and stiffer. A machine continuously bends a smaller piece of the glass down to a radius of nine millimeters. He showed me a spool of glass half a meter wide and half a kilometer long, which looks like a fat roll of cellophane. Sprengard recently brought some demos to show off in a San Francisco hotel room. Rüdiger Sprengard, director of business development for ultrathin glass at Schott in Mainz, Germany, says the company can now continuously manufacture flexible glass in kilometers-long sheets. We are determined that G-Leaf ™ will contribute to a future society that is environmentally and user friendly by expanding the scope of its uses to electronic paper, touch-panel displays, digital signage, and beyond.Schott is the first company to make ultrathin glass that can be chemically strengthened by ion exchange. Meanwhile, in energy and other fields, we aim to supply G-Leaf™ as the solution to issues that film and other materials cannot resolve, and a means to achieve more advanced technologies and products. Ultra-thin glass is the ideal material for protecting humidity-sensitive OLED elements and We develop and test G-Leaf™ ultra-thin glass for use in some of the most talked-about next-generation technologies such as OLED and flexible displays. Thinner, lighter, more flexible glass for the future *Source: our study, current as of December 2013, based on rolled ultra-thin glass, 0.5m wide and 100m long. Our refined manufacturing technologies have resulted in the world’s thinnest glass – just 30μm thick. Smooth and even glass that requires no extra polishing, because only air touches the glass surface. This method’s greatest feature is its ability to produce extremely The overflow process helps make glass thinner it is the process that enables stable production of G-Leaf ™ ultra-thin glass with all its superlative qualities. The name is derived from a desire to create a green, environmentally friendly glass that is as thin and light as a leaf. G-Leaf ™ is the our brand name for ultra-thin glass with a thickness of 200μm (0.2mm) or less. G-Leaf ™: the state-of-the-art glass so thin it’s measured in micrometers Read on to Related Information about G-Leaf™ ultra-thin glass. Such as flexible displays and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) lighting. We continue to develop new uses for thin glass, Glass lighter and flexible enough to be rolled up like film. One major focus of our efforts is the pursuit of thinness. Range of applications, enrich lifestyles, and make a genuine contribution to society. We are developing new technologies that will put those qualities to use in an ever-broader It is used in a multitude of places, from household windows and kitchen utensils to the highly advanced fields of telecommunication and aerospace. But glass is actually very versatile: it can be processed into various shapes and sizes it has gas barrier properties so it is impervious to air and water and it is heat resistant. Most people think that glass is transparent and unbending. G-Leaf ™ ultra-thin glass overturns glass stereotypes
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |