Corning has introduced Gorilla Glass NBT, a new cover glass designed to protect the screens of touch-enabled notebooks. The company said this new solution provides enhanced scratch resistance, reduced scratch visibility, and better retained strength once a scratch occurs. Corning claims the new solution has eight to ten times the scratch resistance than the typical lower-performance soda-lime glass used on touch and non-touch notebooks on the market today.
"Noted as the next wave in touch technologies by market research groups, touch-enabled notebooks have the potential to approach the size of the current smartphone cover glass market within the next few years," the company said. "Corning Gorilla Glass NBT delivers the cost-effective scratch and damage resistance that consumers have come to expect of the world's leading cover glass solution to this new mobile device market."
Using Corning's new glass in notebooks means greater resistance to unsightly abrasions caused by cleaning, wiping, careless handling and destructive kids. It also reduces the chance of damaging a laptop screen when inadvertently closing the display on top of an object. Gorilla Glass NBT also increases a laptop's chance of withstanding shock during accidental bumps, the company said.
To demonstrate how Corning's new glass performs, Paul Tompkins, director of business development for Touch on Notebook, placed two notebooks side-by-side: a model sporting the typical glass on the right and an identical model with Gorilla Glass NBT on the left. He then placed a pen on the right laptop's keyboard, closed the lid and placed his weight on the device. When he opened the lid, the screen was badly damaged. He did the same with the notebook on the left, but when he lifted the lid, the Gorilla Glass screen remained undamaged.
"We are confident that Corning Gorilla Glass NBT will outperform legacy soda-lime glass, delivering eight to 10 times more scratch resistance," said James R. Steiner, senior vice president and general manager, Corning Specialty Materials. "In fact, for just 1 to 2 percent of a notebook's retail price, consumers can now get the best cover glass solution: a Gorilla solution. Simply put, we believe that if you don't have Gorilla on your device, it's not as good."
Corning Gorilla Glass NBT is currently available and is expected to be featured on several notebook product models by leading global brands later this year. The catch here is that it will cost less than 2 percent of the retail purchase price, so resulting notebooks with Gorilla Glass NBT will cost more than the soda-lime glass-based versions.
