The only downfall to having thin glass trays manage everything in your life using highly sophisticated but delicate electronic equipment is that they are, aside from everything else, made out of glass. It is almost as if form and aesthetic trumps function when it comes to smartphones and this has led to countless mishaps when it comes to wear and tear.
As anyone who has owned a smartphone can tell you, a nice big crack doesn’t end the product’s life but it certainly doesn’t improve yours. And when it shatters? Isn’t that a terrible day indeed.
Those days might be a thing of the past if Samsung’s new unbreakable screen becomes the industry standard. Samsung’s new flexible organic LED display is able to withstand bends and drops due to a unique layering process that uses fortified plastic rather than glass, allowing the screen to survive bends that no glass device could ever handle.
Discussing the breakthrough, general manager of the Communication Team at the Samsung Display Company Hojung Kim said, “The fortified plastic window is especially suitable for portable electronic devices not only because of its unbreakable characteristics but also because of its lightweight, transmissivity and hardness, which are all very similar to glass.”
Samsung’s unbreakable designation comes after an extensive round of tests with OSHA and the US Department of Defense. The glass from Samsung had to withstand a battery of tests including a drop test of 4 feet above ground twenty six times in a row and a high temperature/low temperature test, among others, according to Ephotozine. After the performance of the tests the team would test the Samsung device for functionality and recorded that no damage or loss of functionality occurred after the tests.
You can watch a video of the tech in action on YouTube by clicking here.
