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I believe hardness is actually a bad thing in terms of replacing gorilla glass in phones. It increases the likelihood of shattering when dropped, and is the mai

I believe hardness is actually a bad thing in terms of replacing gorilla glass in phones. It increases the likelihood of shattering when dropped, and is the main reason for sapphire not being adopted.

masklinn 9y ago
> It increases the likelihood of shattering when dropped AlON seems significantly tougher than glass as well as being way harder. So it looks to be both more scratch-resistant and more shatter-resistant. > is the main reason for sapphire not being adopted. Do you have sources (actual sources, not Corning fearing for their business) for that?
- kdumont 9y ago
  I'm no materials scientist. I just recall some articles I read when I was curious why I hadn't seen sapphire showing up in phone screens. Here is the first article Google pulls up. http://time.com/3377972/why-apple-didnt-use-sapphire-iphone-screens/ http://time.com/3377972/why-apple-didnt-use-sapphire-iphone-... I agree with you that AlON appears to be harder than glass. I just question if that is necessarily a good thing for consumer electronics. I expect we want something that is very tough but relatively flexible/soft.
  - deleted 9y ago
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- kps 9y ago
  > So it looks to be both more scratch-resistant and more shatter-resistant. Refractive index 1.79, Abbe number 58… Why are my eyeglasses not made of this?
VLM 9y ago
"main reason for sapphire not being adopted" Edmund Optics sells a sapphire window thats unfortunately round, too thin (2mm) and too small (75 mm about 3 inches) to replace the glass in an iphone; the primary problem is that far too small optical window costs $650. On one hand a sheet large enough for a phone would cost more, on the other hand industrial production would be cheaper, much handwaving and it could be done but it'll cost $1K per phone, perhaps.
- vilhelm_s 9y ago
  There have been phone screens made of sapphire, e.g. there was a special edition sapphire version of the HTC U Ultra (https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/4/15544426/htc-sapphire-u-ultra-iphone-galaxy-scratch-resistant https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/4/15544426/ht...) which cost 150 Euro more than the glass version. I guess for just screen protection you don't need as high quality as for optical applications.
jacquesm 9y ago
The Corning product is an extremely interesting material, the hardness varies with the depth leading to scratch resistance and a reasonably high level of resistance against shattering.

masklinn 9y ago

> It increases the likelihood of shattering when dropped AlON seems significantly tougher than glass as well as being way harder. So it looks to be both more scratch-resistant and more shatter-resistant. > is the main reason for sapphire not being adopted. Do you have sources (actual sources, not Corning fearing for their business) for that?

kdumont 9y ago
I'm no materials scientist. I just recall some articles I read when I was curious why I hadn't seen sapphire showing up in phone screens. Here is the first article Google pulls up. http://time.com/3377972/why-apple-didnt-use-sapphire-iphone-screens/ http://time.com/3377972/why-apple-didnt-use-sapphire-iphone-... I agree with you that AlON appears to be harder than glass. I just question if that is necessarily a good thing for consumer electronics. I expect we want something that is very tough but relatively flexible/soft.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
kps 9y ago
> So it looks to be both more scratch-resistant and more shatter-resistant. Refractive index 1.79, Abbe number 58… Why are my eyeglasses not made of this?

VLM 9y ago

"main reason for sapphire not being adopted" Edmund Optics sells a sapphire window thats unfortunately round, too thin (2mm) and too small (75 mm about 3 inches) to replace the glass in an iphone; the primary problem is that far too small optical window costs $650. On one hand a sheet large enough for a phone would cost more, on the other hand industrial production would be cheaper, much handwaving and it could be done but it'll cost $1K per phone, perhaps.

vilhelm_s 9y ago
There have been phone screens made of sapphire, e.g. there was a special edition sapphire version of the HTC U Ultra (https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/4/15544426/htc-sapphire-u-ultra-iphone-galaxy-scratch-resistant https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/5/4/15544426/ht...) which cost 150 Euro more than the glass version. I guess for just screen protection you don't need as high quality as for optical applications.

jacquesm 9y ago

The Corning product is an extremely interesting material, the hardness varies with the depth leading to scratch resistance and a reasonably high level of resistance against shattering.