The Glass Age, Part 2: Strong, Durable Glass

let's switch gears your smartphone you hold it in your hand you put it to your ear you keep it in your pocket or your purse it's a great everyday use of glass that you might not think about until it breaks until it breaks I myself have shattered over a dozen of these but you might have noticed over the years that the display on your phone has been getting harder to break let's go back a few years if you done that to your standard 2008 phone that's what would have happened not pretty no and that could easily happen just by keeping your keys and your phone in the same pocket and if you then dropped that phone well the probability of the phone breaking was high how high very high let me show you aren't you gonna drop the phone well sort of instead of dropping the phone I'm going to drop something on the phone this steel ball for consistency say it exactly in this way my phone drops exactly the same way every single time here we go three two one oh I've seen you do that so many times in real life me too but that was then this is now thanks to Corning we have Gorilla Glass I'm pretty sure that's what I've got on my phone and it's on this phone as well I'm about to do the same test a second time check this out no scratch not at all now same drop test ready no three two one wow what a difference a few years can make actually Corning came up with this method for strengthening glass long ago Gorilla Glass evolved from that process and today is found on all the best small devices like this it's beginning to find its way onto larger format displays - now it's not unbreakable if you set out to break it you will but as corning figures out ways to unlock more secrets of glass it will continue to get more resilient it may even get to a state where devices such as these simply don't break anymore oh and by the way Corning has just come out with a new and improved version of Gorilla Glass really yeah let's go deeper watch this odd stuff yeah this hot stuff is your basic everyday soda lime glass there's nothing remarkable about it except that it's white hot and molten there we go and I'm going to drop it in cold water it's called a Prince Rupert's drop whose Prince Rupert some Bavarian from the 1600s he came up with this okay so there's a few things going on here the cold water rapidly cools the exterior surface of the glass hardening it almost immediately the interior still molten cools more slowly as it cools it contracts and attempts to pull the surface in with it but it can't well not very much the surface is already hardened so it gets pulled in only a little compressing it while also creating an internal layer that remains forever under tension it is this action that gives the glass its uncharacteristic strength we call it compressive strength it sounds like the same principle as how an arch provides strength and structural engineering yes kind of now Jamie can ask for your help we're going to attempt to destroy this Prince Rupert drop I just want you to tip that hammer past its center point go ahead I feel like she's been swindled swindled not we have just experienced the power of compressive strength it does however have an Achilles heel take those nippers right there and nip the backside of the tail of this Prince Rupert off and watch what happens wait wait wait cue the high speed camera okay here we go Wow that was even cooler than I thought it would be that is what happens when you release the stress in compressive strength glass the whole thing shatters spectacularly yes well at least in that example it was that's because the stress was so great between the outer compressive layer and the inner tension layer that when released it was a catastrophic result this is Gorilla Glass it has been refined over time but like all Gorilla Glass variants that came before it it is compressive strength glass but it's not made in the same way as we just demonstrated the rapid cooling method no instead Corning uses an ion exchange process to break it down simply the surface ion particles that naturally form during the manufacture are replaced with larger ion particles once exchanged the larger ion particles create the same sort of inward pressure that we see on the Prince Rupert ruk and with this method they are able to control and manage the resulting tension I think what you're saying with this process is that they're able to tune strengthen the glass by dialing the right balance between compression and tension yeah that's a great way of saying at that and also by adding in a few other tricks that change the molecular structure of the glass Corning is steadily moving forward towards the Holy Grail then unbreakable glass for our mobile devices well maybe not unbreakable but yes thin and very tough and by the way the applications for this tough glass go well beyond mobile devices let's go over this one behold the common automobile windshield made from regular soda lime glass it's quite strong because it's very thick and it's laminated which means it's two pieces of glass bonded together using resin in the middle now the resin does two things it gives it added strength and it holds the glass together on impact you've probably seen broken windshields before lot's of crazy cracked glass but still mostly held together in the shape of windshield like this that's pretty cool yes it is windshields have been made of laminated glass for the last hundred years and they've served us well but there is a big drawback I think I know where you're gonna say it's heavy yes very heavy and as we strive for more energy-efficient cars and trucks the weight of all that glass can be a bit of a problem I have a feeling you're about to show an alternative yes take a look at this now this is also a laminate windshield but it's not one you'd find in production it's experimental which is great because we're going to experiment with it it has regular soda lime glass on its outside surface and resin in the center like the other one but this windshield has gorilla glass on the inside surface sweet and looks thinner yes it is and a lot lighter too in fact just by changing the one laminate the overall weight is reduced by about a third in a car that adds up fast thinner lighter and let me guess it's just as strong as windshield a well maybe let's find out oh goody okay well I did it another you'll need a sledgehammer for this one put that down instead you're gonna shoot this windshield with an air cannon cool now don't get too excited we're gonna have to mount this tie it down so it doesn't wobble and we're gonna simulate a pebble hitting this windshield at a super high speed good enough for me when do I start shooting well before we shoot the Gorilla Glass Lebanon let's shoot the regular soda lime laminate windshield a this way all right here we go perfect you want to do the honors sure I'll count it in three two one go whoa haha that was a lot of damage and we see that in slow motion the ball bearing hits the windshield at around 120 miles per hour this could be a stone flicked up by another car it penetrates the exterior glass it stretches the resin it's slowed down a bit but it's still has momentum to break the interior glass layer causing small fragments of glass to spray out through the interior of the car not good so let's try when she'll be the gorilla glass didn't appear to break the foil is intact let's see in slo-mo the ball bearing hits the windshield at around 120 miles per hour just as before it goes through the front layer of soda lime glass stretches the resin but doesn't have enough energy to break the gorilla glass it's not bulletproof I'm pretty sure if we turned up the velocity we breached the gorilla layer too but in this test and all things being equal it performed a lot better than the thicker heavier soda lime laminate windshield that's impressive what we're seeing here is compressive strength at its finest moment okay so it's lighter thinner and stronger that's pretty good yes it is can I get this on my car not today but soon I hope come on though after living through the iron age on the bronze age you can wait a little longer actually when you think about it the application for this goes way beyond the car doesn't it ah feels good to be in the glass age don't touch me sorry you

Channel: Corning Incorporated

Views: 5,046,702

Rating: 4.8827109 out of 5

Keywords: Glass (Visual Art Medium), Corning Inc. (Award Winner), glass, drop test, gorilla glass, corning gorilla glass, Gorilla Glass (Invention), Smartphone (Video Game Platform), Adam Savage (TV Producer), Jamie Hyneman (TV Producer), adam and jamie, MythBusters (TV Program), Mythbuster, launch, cover glass, tough glass, phone display, glass technology, science, technology, materials science, glass demo, windshield material, windshield test

Id: 13B5K_lAabw

Length: 10min 20sec (620 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 19 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/h3lvtca]

Jamie seemed miserable!

[u/AWildAnonHasAppeared]

Not actually made of gorillas.

MYTH BUSTED

[u/[deleted]]

Why didn't they hit Windshield B with the sledge hammer?

[u/sidlurker]

Why not two layers of Gorilla Glass and not (1) soda and (1) gorilla?

[u/thefinalshoutdown]

There sure are a lot of savvy consumers in this thread, and they refuse to be taken in by these corporate shill sellouts...

Jesus Christ...:

• Yes, it is a commercial, and it does not pretend that it isn’t.

• The commercial does not make any extravagant claims. It merely asserts that Corning makes a great product.

• No, Hyneman and Savage probably don’t need the money.

• Hyneman and Savage were probably paid very well for this.

• Hyneman and Savage probably genuinely think that Corning does make a great product, and can probably still sleep at night.

• I found the commercial interesting, and it did not dilute my "trust" in Hyneman and Savage. Then again, I am a few years past the teenage "Wake up, sheeple!" phase...

[u/[deleted]]

Oh cool, an infomercial.

[u/metalknite]

1 meter fall http://imgur.com/kfcCDi3

[u/sdhillon]

Ben Krasnow (A redditor), has a great video on how Gorilla Glass is strengthened, and even makes his own analogue: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y02AXdec1sE&list=UUivA7_KLKWo43tFcCkFvydw

[u/Fallingice2]

Correction, "Myth Busters promote Gorrila Glass".