Schott has introduced its new cover glass for touch panels. Schott Xensation™ Cover is the name of this extremely hard cover and touch glass for use in smartphones and tablet PCs. It is currently considered to be the hardest product of its kind on the market.
Extremely high strength and resistance to scratches are the qualities consumers are demanding most from the latest touch screen devices such as smartphones and tablet PCs – and this is exactly what Schott Xensation™ Cover has to offer. The new product, manufactured in Jena, also features excellent surface quality and flatness.
“Thanks to our more than 125 years of glass development and production experience, combined with German engineering know-how, we have succeeded in developing a high strength special glass that is far superior to the other solutions currently available on the market,” notes Prof. Udo Ungeheuer, Chairman of the Board of Management of Schott AG. “We’ve even established our own area of expertise called ‘Cover & Touch’ in which Schott experts work together on a global basis on further improving these glasses and modifying them to meet the needs of our customers. The Board of Schott attaches the highest priority to this group of products,” he adds.
The internal tests that Schott has performed under standard conditions using process parameters commonly known to the market have shown that with a compressive strength of more than 900 MPa, the Xensation™ Cover material offers significantly higher bending strength and higher ball drop strength test resistance than comparable materials currently available on the market. Furthermore, Xensation™ Cover has delivered stable values under low temperatures during the chemical curing process with respect to compressive stress on the surface and depth of ion exchange. A relatively broad processing window thus allows for high efficiency in the area of processing and saves touch panel manufacturers time and money.
Schott has made this glass available to all of the leading manufacturers in the consumer electronics industry and processing companies in the ‘cover & touch’ industry so that they can evaluate and test this product. Once this process has been completed, the company will be able to offer manufacturers a product ‘made in Germany’ that fits seamlessly into their existing processes – with no need to modify them whatsoever.
The new Schott centre of excellence will also offer support across the entire supply chain. This can include modifying glass types to better suit the manufacturing processes, consulting with the various manufacturing partners to achieve optimal process integration, and even joint development of future products with them. Thanks to its growing presence in what is mainly an Asian cover and touch target market, Schott will be able to provide these services in close proximity to its customers.
Besides its most recent product, Schott also offers cover glass that is particularly well-suited for use in 3D designs. Xensation™ Cover 3D is a lithium-aluminosilicate glass for use in capacitive devices. It helps protect the displays of smartphones and tablet PCs from breakage and scratches and gives these products their extremely attractive surface. In addition, its very low transformation temperature of 505° Celsius allows for efficient manufacturing of attractive 3D glass geometries.
Schott is the only glass manufacturer in the world that offers touch panel glasses for all four types of touch screens: capacitive, resistive, optical and acoustic technologies.
The company has combined these technologies in its existing products Xensation™ Touch, Xensation™ Look and Xensation™ Sound glass to form the umbrella brand Xensation™ – simply ideal for designers and manufacturers in need of high-performance materials for touch panel solutions. Schott Xensation™ Touch for use in resistive applications, for example, has already been driving along as a cover glass in integrated navigation systems in around 25 million cars all over the world for 10 years now.