“The foldable glass is still two years far from the mass production”

As we wrapped up MWC 2019 last month, the world witnessed the dawn of a new class of smartphones — foldables. Samsung showed off its much-hyped Galaxy Fold on February 20th followed by the Huawei Mate X (in pictures), which stole the spotlight at MWC. However, being first-generation products, foldable phones have one big area of concern which is screen protection. As reported by Wired, world-famous protective glass maker, Corning, is working on a foldable glass that is durable and thin enough to use on these new foldable panels.

Unlike traditional smartphone displays, panels in the foldable phones are made up of plastic polymer that’s prone to get scratched much more easily. This is more so the case with an outward folding panel like the Mate X. Hence, a protective glass layer is vital. However, glass isn’t much of a bendable material, and therein lies the challenge for Corning. The company has to make a foldable protective glass that is thin enough to fold and still be strong enough to protect the underlying screen. It’s currently working on an ultrathin, bendable glass that’s 0.1 millimetres thick and can bend to a 5-millimetre radius. Corning is combining its know-how from Willow Glass (a rollable product) and Gorilla Glass to develop the new foldable glass layers. The bad news is that it’s not yet ready for mainstream production. John Bayne, SVP, Gorilla Glass, Corning, says that the company will be ready to mass produce the product in two years, by which time the foldable phones are expected to go mainstream. Now, there are concrete reports surrounding Apple’s foldable phone and it’s highly possible that we could see Corning’s foldable glass on Apple’s first foldable offering.