Corning developing new glass technologies for folding phones and smartwatches

Corning developing new glass technologies for folding phones and smartwatches
| Photo Credit: Haider Ali Khan

Corning on Thursday (September 12, 2024) shared about company’s diversified businesses in India and its presence here since last 60 years. The U.S. based company produces a range of products from mobile protection (Gorilla Glass) to optical fiber, life science and data center products.

The Hindu spoke with Sudhir Pillai, Managing Director, Corning India, where he said that Corning is developing new glass technologies for folding phones and smartwatches but these aren’t locally produced yet.

Corning’s flexible layers (Gorilla Glass Victus 2) can be found on Samsung’s foldable phones: Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6 devices.

Corning claims that their protective covers are found on 8 billion devices globally.

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Corning sells protective front and back covers for smartphones by the name of Gorilla Glass which started off in 2007. They come in the form of Gorilla Glass Victus, Armor, etc.

Sudhir said that most of the OEMs source protective covers from Corning without naming any particular brand or mass buyer as such.

Last year, Corning announced a joint venture (JV) with Optiemus to make protective front glass for smartphones in a greenfield factory coming up in Tamil Nadu. Eventually, the JV might move to producing back protective layer or glass melting as well.

The joint venture called, Bharat Innovative Glass (BIG) Technologies, will start producing from the second half of 2025, informed Sudhir.

As reported by The Hindu earlier, the new facility would employ between 500 to 700 people. The new manufacturing unit is expected to produce 30 million pieces annually.

On competition with German brands like Schott, Sudhir said that Corning has a strong position in the Indian market and continue to innovate in future.