As automakers aggressively answer the demand for more in-vehicle connectivity and immersive environments, interior displays are getting larger, more interactive and require higher resolutions. In many ways, these interior displays are becoming extensions of our handheld devices. We expect a clear, beautiful surface, a tactile feel, and smooth touch-sensitivity. Under these circumstances, plastic displays have simply become lackluster, which is precisely why glass has become the material of choice for bringing interior displays to life.
What does this mean for you? More glass in your auto interior, delivering its inherent authenticity and a sleek touch-feel to your user experience. But it can’t just be authentic, beautiful, and responsive like the glass on your mobile device — it needs to be tough enough for the automotive use-case. That’s where the retained strength of AutoGrade™ Corning Gorilla Glass for Automotive Interiors comes in.
The Scenario
Imagine a car accident where the driver or passenger propels forward upon impact and risks hitting his or her head on the dashboard. With this scenario in mind, the auto industry developed regulatory requirements with a very specific mandate: upon impact, surfaces in the dash should not break in a way that could further harm the occupant. They call this the Headform-Impact Test, or “HIT” for short, and materials used in dashboard designs must comply with its regulations.
For this rigorous test, a 15-pound headform made of aluminum is dropped or swings from a height of more than seven feet onto a vehicle’s center stack display at 15 miles per hour. You might think that ordinary glass wouldn’t survive the impact, and you’d be right. However, specially formulated AutoGrade™ Gorilla Glass is tough enough to survive the impact and pass the test over a wide system design window, even if the display underneath breaks. Corning’s AutoGrade™ solutions can reliably and economically enable next-generation trends.
The Solution
What makes AutoGrade™ Gorilla Glass so tough? Through Corning’s proprietary ion-exchange process, AutoGrade™ Gorilla Glass attains a much higher retained strength compared with incumbent cover materials. As a result, when the headform impacts the glass during HIT, AutoGrade™ Gorilla Glass can accommodate the force over a wide system design window. This reduces the chance of a surface flaw becoming a larger crack, which can cause glass to break.
The Benefit
With an interior glass that is as beautiful as it is tough, AutoGrade™ Gorilla Glass is opening a new world of design possibilities to automakers as they open a new world of connectivity for consumers.
