Corning has introduced a new version of its tough Gorilla Glass designed for notebooks with touchscreen displays. Following on from its extensive use in smartphones and tablets, Gorilla Glass NBT is claimed by the company to provide enhanced scratch resistance, a better retained strength after a scratch occurs, and reduced scratch visibility compared to soda lime glass normally used in notebook screens.
James R Steiner, senior vice president at the company, believes that the NBT variant of Gorilla Glass will provide eight to ten times the scratch resistance of normal glass treatments, going as far as to say "We believe that if you don't have Gorilla on your device, it's not as good." Dell has signed up to be one of the first to use Gorilla Glass NBT in devices it will launch this fall, though other “leading global brands” will also use the material later this year.
While the new glass will effectively cost device producers between one and two percent of the overall cost of the notebook itself in order to provide glass, it is likely that it will appear on more devices in the future. Corning is not stopping at notebooks, as in June an executive suggested it could be used to replace glass used in automobiles to lower weight and provide sound insulation. The company is also said to be developing an "antimicrobial" glass that destroys bacteria, something it hopes to be certified by the US Environmental Protection Agency before it gets used in the healthcare industry.
