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Corning can now print photo-quality images directly onto its ‘Vibrant’ Gorilla Glass

By Koh Wanzi - on 21 Apr 2016, 6:51pm

Corning can now print photo-quality images directly onto its ‘Vibrant’ Gorilla Glass

No, this isn't a printed sheet of paper. Corning claims it can print photo-quality images like this one on its new Vibrant Gorilla Glass, which could open the way for phone manufacturers to further differentiate their products. (Image Source: Corning)

Corning is quite a household name when it comes to phone screens, or any other device with a touchscreen for that matter. But it has thus far been virtually indistinguishable from regular glass, and you wouldn’t be able to tell one from the other unless you decided to do something drastic. That changes with the announcement of its new Vibrant Gorilla Glass, which as the name suggests, allows companies to print colored images directly onto its surface.

The ability to print images on glass has been around for a while now, but Vibrant Gorilla Glass is unique because the glass remains extremely durable, just like Corning’s other Gorilla Glass products. The company says it uses a proprietary inkjet process to print onto Gorilla Glass, which will enable manufacturers to display multiple colors, gradients, logos, and even photo-quality images at nearly the same resolution as on paper.

And when compared to other printing methods, Corning claims that its way requires shorter processing times and produces less waste. More significantly, the process is supposedly scalable enough to support personalized devices, which means that smartphone manufacturers could potentially create one-of-a-kind devices for each customer.

Of course, these won’t be used on the displays of phones – phones like the Samsung Galaxy S7 and Xiaomi Mi 5 already have all-glass backs, and we could eventually see phones with unique, custom designs on their rear. But while we're not sure we like the idea of having a huge, colorful image emblazoned onto the back of our phones, the ability to create durable, multi-colored glass could still be used in tasteful ways by device manufacturers.

On the topic of cost, Corning says that the process is cost-neutral compared to earlier methods of screen printing single-color logos onto glass.

Product sampling and shipments to Corning's customers have already begun, so devices with the new Gorilla Glass could appear sooner rather than later. 

Source: Corning via The Verge

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