The team at uBreakiFix was recently invited to Corning’s Gorilla Glass testing facility in Corning, New York for an inside look at the science behind the ultra-durable glass found on iPhones, iPads and several other smartphones and tablets. The five-minute spot goes behind the scenes at Corning’s strength testing lab to show how durable Gorilla Glass is under stress and bending tests.
A second video provides an in-depth look at some of the properties of Gorilla Glass and looks at the science behind what makes the glass so strong. Gorilla Glass benefits from a process called ion exchange that makes the glass able to retain strength after being scratched or damaged, an advantage that helps set it apart from other types of glass on the market.
While it was highly rumored for several months that Apple would switch to sapphire crystal glass for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, both smartphones still use ion-strengthened Gorilla Glass. Not long after the smartphones were launched, Apple’s sapphire crystal glass partner GT Advanced filed for bankruptcy in what has been a rather dramatic fallout.
Thanks, Gary!
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I super disappointed. I watched the whole video and not a single Gorilla.
I can’t imagine that apple would invest this much money in sapphire and you can break it with a pencil eraser. It would obviously be strengthened or be thicker than the 1 mm they are testing in the video.
From the start, I wasn’t sure what all the fuss was with last year’s partnership between Apple and GTAT and their Sapphire glass as everything I had been taught about sapphire was it’s propensity to shatter when dropped.
While this demo was put on by the manufacturer of Gorilla Glass – so they do have a vested interest in their continuing partnership with Apple – it just reinforces sapphires weakness when dropped.
Cook and Company must have had something else up their sleeve – and it hasn’t been revealed yet . . . Or GTAT REALLY sold Apple a pig in a poke.
Interesting how money motivates test methods. Notice they DID NOT break the sapphire before scratching it. Then they scratched it, applied pressure, and it broke. What they FAILED TO TELL YOU is what they scratched it with. It was a type of sand paper, likely made of aluminum oxide (same molecule as sapphire). They somehow FORGOT to mention that NO COMMON MATERIAL in your pocket is hard enough to scratch sapphire, unless you are carrying a diamond ring (or sand paper!) in your pocket. So it is an INVALID test, since the scratched condition would not typically occur in real life. Shame on your, Corning, for such a deceiving test!!