Thin, lightweight glass, your smartphone will soon be on the Windows of cars. Corning produces Gorilla Glass for the screens of billions of mobile phones. Automakers are interested in using this glass in their cars to reduce vehicle weight and improve fuel economy. BWM AG was the first to use Gorilla Glass in the past year. This material is made from the inner panel in hybrid sports car i8.
The first Ford Motor will use it for windshield and rear window in the new sports car Ford GT which should go on sale next year. The GT engine is also covered with a lid made of Gorilla Glass.
“This is the first change glass since 1923,” says Paul Linden, supervisor of exterior mechanisms at Ford. In that year, Henry Ford began using safety glass in Model t’s.
Traditional windshields are made of two layers heat treated, annealed glass with a plastic layer between them. Tempered glass forms a spider web pattern when breaking, and its fragments remain on the plastic, preventing injury of the passengers.
Windshield GT — hybrid. Its outer layer is made from annealed glass, and inside plastic. But the inner layer is made of chemically strengthened glass Gorilla Glass of the car class that is much thinner and lighter than traditional glasses. Ford says that the use of Gorilla Glass makes windshield 32% lighter, which saves fuel and improves handling.
Corning says that the glass meets the safety standards of the USA and has been tested on hard roads and in wind tunnels. Ford says it’s stronger than traditional annealed glass. When the engineers shot with hailstones on Gorilla Glass, it remained intact. Annealed glass breaks.
Gorilla Glass is not suitable everywhere. Side Windows GT, for example, made of tempered glass. Automakers are trying to use tempered glass on the side Windows because it breaks into small pieces and has a plastic layer which can prevent someone to get out of the transport by accident. Doug Harshbarger, commercial Director of automotive glass business Corning, said that the company is working on alternative versions of Gorilla Glass for use in the car.
Gorilla Glass is already in use in the field of consumer electronics in 2007. Corining and Ford began working together on automotive glass in 2012. Harshbarger said that the company is also working with several other automakers that are rushing to adapt to the strict fuel-economy standards that will be adopted in the next ten years.
“Weight is the enemy,” says Linden.
Lightweight glass is not the only option for reducing weight. Toyota Motor uses durable plastic for the hatch on my Prius V, for example.
One of the obstacles to widespread Gorilla Glass is its high cost. Harshbarger says, it costs 2-4 dollars more per kilo than ordinary glass. Ford saves about four pounds with GT, resulting in a mark-up in 24 to 48 USD per car. Expensive supercar like the GT for $ 400,000 it will survive, but regular cars are not.
Stephenie Brinlee, senior analyst at IHS Automotive, said that the launch of the new technology in cars helps companies figure out whether this is possible on other vehicles. She says that Gorilla Glass is very promising technology, because this glass is stronger and lighter.
“It hits the bull’s eye of the entire industry,” she says. Linden believes that Ford will eventually include Gorilla Glass in their entire line.