Importance Of Glass in Modern Day

If I ask someone what is the important thing that you cannot go without? You may answer music, television, computer, a cup of coffee, internet connection, smart phone etc. But those are not the answer I was looking for. I think the important thing is glass. Now many will tell me why it is glass?? So let me put it this way, can you imagine a world without glass? Think about it .Glass is really quite extraordinary, without it many of our major achievement would never have happened.

Glass has a deep history and as a material it has complex properties that we are just learning. We look right through it and thing if we cannot handle glass properly it will break into pieces.

First is the use of glass in electronics and cables. The best examples are TV, computer screen, laptops, tablets, smart phones. The common type of glass that is used in mobile device is Gorilla Glass which was first invented by corning.

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The process of making gorilla glass was first invented in 1960s. But because there was no use it took 40 year to use the gorilla glass for the first time which was used in an IPhone. It is nothing but to exchange the small sodium ions in the upper surface by large ions. It is popular because of the glass is very thin 0.4 mm and it is scarce resistance. For this almost all the mobile phone and laptop companies use gorilla glass as there first choice to make display.

Also then optics of the glass is also good which makes the viewing and clarity of the content good. Also OLED screens are also made of gorilla glass. Recently Samsung has announced an unbreakable display. Asahi a Japanese company also make glasses like gorilla glass they call it dragon trail glass. But it is not as popular as gorilla glass. LCD displays are made of sandwich of glass under that liquid crystal is added to reflect light through polarizer, without this we cannot see anything in LCD display.

The cables which are made of glass are known as Optical fiber glass. A fiber-optic cable is made up of incredibly thin strands of glass. One cable can have two strands to several hundred. Each strand is as thick as a human hair and can carry something like 25,000 telephone calls, so an entire fiber-optic cable can easily carry several million calls. And best part is that it can be easily twisted and bended just like a rope and nothing will happen to the strand. The photon partials go through the strands and reflect by the wall of the strand. Due to less angle there is no data lost and the outer layer also protect the photon partials to stop going through the strands. This idea was first developed by corning in late 90s. For this it is used for transferring voice and data transfer in long distance in low cost and high bandwidth which is ultimately known as internet. Practical limit of data transfer of optical fiber keep increasing. Using modern science it is possible to transfer about 1 petabyte which will be like downloading 17,000 HD movies from Netflix in just 1 sec.

Secondly, uses of glass in Automobile and transport. Windscreens, light weight but reinforced structural components of cars, aircrafts, ships, etc. are the common use of glass in automobile industry. Also bulletproof and shockproof glass also used in automobile sector. 2 types of glass are widely used in cars and buses they are laminated and tempered glass. Laminated glass is made of 2 sheets of glass stuck together by PVB sheet. When it breaks it will not shatter to sharp pieces. It is deigned to take heavy impact. It is widely used in windscreens in cars and buses. But not in every crash the impact is same. For this many of the windows are made from tempered glass. It is made by quickly heating a sheet of glass and rapidly cooling it. The best part of this glass is during impact this glass will turn into thousand small harmless pieces. Tempered glass also has application outside automobile industry. Tempered glass is an ideal material for products like baking and cooking dishes, sunglasses. Lexan polycarbonate also known as plexiglass is used in aviation industry for making windows. Also ceramic glass components are used in aviation sector. Plexiglass are lightweight and heat resistant so they can be incorporated in a number of uses at high altitude. Many commercial aircraft like Boeing 777 and many military aircraft are made from it. Bulletproof glass are made from strong sheets of glasses are bound together by polycarbonate layer between each sheets. This sandwich of layer is called laminate. Prime minister, president and military sector widely use it. It is very costly and it is also very heavy so it will not make your car fuel efficient. Recently corning has invented a glass which has gorilla glass bonded with laminated glass. It is 3 times lighter than normal laminated glass and much strong and durable then laminated glass.