by Mark Ollig
While Apple Inc. was
designing their first iPhone, the choice of using a plastic display screen was
being talked about.
Well, once Apple’s boss
found out about it, he was, shall we say, “not very happy.”
I read Steve Jobs
expressed his displeasure of using a plastic display covering, partly due to
its vulnerability to surface scratches.
Plus, in my humble
opinion, I think Mr. Jobs may have also thought using a plastic display screen
cover was kind of cheesy.
After all, this was
going to be Apple’s revolutionary new product offering, and so, a top-quality
material for a display screen was required.
Apple needed to use a
strong glass display screen which wouldn’t crack.
In Walter Isaacson’s
biography on Steve Jobs, it was revealed, while talking with Wendell Weeks, the
CEO of Corning Incorporated, Jobs had learned about a special formulated
process Corning had developed for making a strength-hardened, scratch-resistant
glass.
Weeks explained to Jobs
about Corning’s Project Muscle glass initiative, where they experimented in
developing a damage-resistant, hardened glass in 1960.
Corning used this
initiative to develop Chemcor glass in 1961.
Jobs convinced the
Corning CEO to re-tool one of their manufacturing plants, in order to begin
production of a hardened glass that could be used on Apple’s upcoming new
iPhone.
So, in 2006, Corning
re-tooled one of their plants in Kentucky, and rushed to manufacture this
stronger glass – which rumor says was based on Project Muscle, and later became
known as Gorilla Glass.
In June of 2007,
Corning’s glass display screen covers were on the first generation of
revolutionary new Apple iPhones.
So here we are in 2014,
and once again we are eagerly awaiting Apple’s next revolutionary iPhone; which
rumor says will become available this fall.
Rumor also has it this
next Apple smartphone will be called the iPhone 6, and will feature a
brand-new, much stronger, glass display screen.
This next iPhone may be
using a sapphire glass display screen; however, Apple has not confirmed this.
I hope the next iPhone
uses sapphire glass, as it is a reported two and one-half times stronger than
Corning’s current Gorilla Glass, is highly shatter-proof, and is extremely
resistant to breakage and scratches.
Having a sapphire glass
screen on a smartphone will provide much more protection against accidental
damage, than current glass screens being used.
GT Advanced
Technologies’ Crystal Systems division is currently producing sapphire glass
exclusively for Apple in its new 1.3 million-square-foot facility in Mesa, AZ.
A video I watched
explaining the production of sapphire glass, states no other material – except
for diamond – is harder.
I learned the process
for producing sapphire glass starts with what is called a “sapphire seed.” Its
shape looks very much like a white hockey puck.
This sapphire seed is
placed on the bottom of a rounded, molybdenum refractory-metal barrel called a
crucible.
A mixture of condensed
corundum (a crystalline form of aluminum oxide), and left over crystallized
sapphire material from previous productions called “crackle,” is added into the
crucible.
The crucible barrel is
then placed inside a furnace. There, it sits on a small platform cooled by
liquid helium, which keeps the sapphire seed from melting too early in the
production process.
The furnace is sealed,
and the air inside is removed.
Inside the heated
furnace, the temperature reaches almost 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, which is
significantly hot, especially when you consider the Space Shuttle, upon
re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere, would experience temperatures of around
3,000 degrees Fahrenheit.
Under this extreme heat,
the materials inside the crucible melt together.
Throughout the next 16
to 17 days, the materials are put through various cooling cycles.
During this time, the
sapphire will slowly crystallize from the bottom to the top.
The final product is a
cylinder-shaped piece of industrial sapphire called a boule, weighing around
250 pounds.
To me, it looked like a
large, cylindrical, piece of ice.
This newly-manufactured
sapphire glass boule is then inspected, and repeatedly polished for added
strength.
The clean glass core
sections are drilled out from the newly-manufactured sapphire, and are cut into
patterns for use in applications such as an aircraft’s windows and electronic
display screens, store bar-code sensors, and possibly, very soon – iPhone
display screen covers.
For a smartphone
display and large computing tablet glass covers, a rectangular piece of
sapphire material would be cut to the specifically-sized proportions needed,
re-polished, and then sliced into the correct thickness.
Holes would be punched
out for a smart device’s speakers and button locations.
The rectangular piece
of sapphire would then be rounded to the correct size needed for use as the
protective glass cover for the specific smart device it is to be used for.
Apple is currently
using sapphire glass on their iPhone 5S rear camera lens, fingerprint sensor,
and home button.
It is rumored Apple’s
much purported new “iWatch” will also be using a sapphire glass cover.
So, it seems the 23rd
century formula for “transparent aluminum” Scotty mentions in “Star Trek IV:
The Voyage Home” has been somewhat re-created here in the 21st century using
specially manufactured sapphire glass.
A news video about
Apple’s manufacturing plant in Mesa, AZ, where GT Advanced Technologies is
producing the sapphire glass, can be seen at: http://tinyurl.com/bytes-mesa1.
From sapphire boule to display screen
