Design HMI LLC
Based on Schott down-draw technology, we are supplying ultra-thin glass with tightest geometrical tolerances from a
reliable mass production environment into various industries like automotive. SCHOTT ultra-thin glass is available in different glass types with diverse chemical and physical properties in a thickness range of 25 – 210 μm.
Schott is mass-manufacturing glass that’s ultrathin, strong, and smooth. Electronics can be made on it, and it flexes like plastic. The first consumer product to use Schott’s new glass is the fingerprint sensor on a smartphone made by LeTV, a large video-streaming company in China.
Schott is the first company to make ultrathin glass that can be chemically strengthened by ion exchange. They can continuously manufacture flexible glass in kilometers-long sheets.
Normal paper is about 100 micrometers thick; Schott sheet is 70 micrometers. To make glass thinner and thinner—and therefore more flexible—glassmakers have to figure out how to strengthen it.
The glass is drawn down out of a huge, molten tank into sheets and run through rollers. It is then run through a bath of molten potassium. Smaller sodium ions leave the glass and are replaced by larger potassium ions, creating compression within the glass itself.
The more the glass is squeezed, the stronger it becomes. Controlling this compressive process in ever-thinner glass is difficult—there’s simply less material to work with. The company currently makes glass as thin as 20 micrometers. Maintaining continuous thickness across kilometers is also a challenge. And any tiny flaws must be smoothed over—or that’s where your phone screen will shatter.
For more information, look up MIT Technology Review or Click Schott Glass
