How ultra thin glass case for iPhone/Android are manufactured

Ultra thin glass case for iPhone/Android

We have always seen that ultra thin glass is already used in many products like smartphones fingerprint scanning, wrap around screen & watches etc. The ultra thin glasses are thinner than a human hair & as flexible as plastic. The manufacturers only just began to explore the potential of this new class of glass. The ultra thin glass bends like a sheet of paper & a chemical process ensures that it is extremely robust.

Skinny glasses

To make ultra thin glass, a manufacturer uses standard materials like lime, soda, sand & potash. The ingredients are stored in a separate silo until it’s time for production. Inside the factory, a retractable cable powers an automated cart. The dry ingredients lines in weight for the sheets to open. As the cart moves forward & ready to collect them. It then weights the ingredients until it has the correct amount for the glass recipe. Then it closes the lid automatically. The smaller secret ingredients are added manually to the batch.

 

In the factory, a worker measures the secondary small ingredients manually & adds them to the batch. These ingredients enhance qualities like electrical sensitivity or optical clarity. The cart then transfers the batch to a mixer. The mixer blends everything together. The worker then adds bits of broken or waste glass for recycling purposes.

Thin glasses

Once it’s been thoroughly mixed, a lift raises a funnel-shaped container up to the base of the mixer & then the mixer releases the batch into it. The workers then haul the batch laden funnel tank to the next station. There a crane takes over & lowers the tank onto a feeder system just above gas & electric furnace. Then a trapdoor opens at the funnel base & the mixture then flows to the feeder mechanism. It is a kind of shovel that slowly pushes the mixture into the furnace which has been fired to a blazing 2732 degrees Fahrenheit.

The shovel continuously adds more ingredients to keep production flowing. Moreover, glass production runs 24*7. The melting glass reaches the consistency of honey. The molten glass flows out through a narrow slit & establishes the ultra thin dimensions of the glass. Cooling the glass slowly relieves the internal stresses as the glass solidifies.

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Thin frame glasses for smartphones & watches

The ultra thin glass can be just 25 microns thick that is finer than a hair & this thinness that makes it so flexible. The glass then bends to loop down & up across rollers as a journey forward in a continuous nearly 2-foot wide sheet. Unlike ordinary glass, it doesn’t crack. It then travels pass tiny cameras & laser sensors that look for some defects like bubbles etc. A computer maps any flaws, so that can be avoided when the glass is cut into smaller pieces. A revolving spool rolls up the glass along with a plastic liner which prevents the glass layers from sticking together. Once 500 mts of thin glass has been wound onto the spool, an automated system cuts it & slides the spool of the core & onto a rack.

 

The worker then gives it a push to complete the transfer, then rolls the rack to the next station. A lab technicians slices off a fragment of the glass & inserts it into a micrometer. It then gauges the thickness of the specimen & confirms that it’s super thin.

Another lab worker places a bigger segment of the glass under a cutter. The worker aligns it correctly & then activates the machine. It then scribes the glass, so that it can be broken, creating small screens for smartphones & smartwatches.

Another lab technician then examine the glass for scratches under bright light, as to confirm that it’s undamaged. To know how flexible it is, a technician twists a strip into a circle & ties it. Later a chemical treatment will further strengthen the ultra thin glass, as the chance of it cracking or breaking will be extremely well.

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