It will be according to glasspecialist Corning for at least another three years before manufacturers are able to make curved or flexible displays on the basis of its bendable Willow-glassubstraten. The customers would still have very little experience with dealing with on reels supplied glass.
According to James Clapping, head of the New York-based Corning Glass Technologies, the displayfabrikanten currently do not have the knowledge and experience to curved or flexible screens on the basis of Willow-glass substrate to produce, as is to be read at Bloomberg. There are more manufacturers that are very thin, flexible glass, such as the Japanese Asahi, but Corning is a major manufacturer that a lot of the big names in the field of mobile devices interacts.
The ceo further says that it is busy the manufacturers to learn how to operate the coils with the Willow-glass and the processing thereof into products. Among the manufacturers could also ‘big names’ are, without Corning to further specify. Clapping expects his Willow-glass substrate this year is already in to simpler products, as a flexible top layer for solar cells or thin film behind touchpanelen, will be used.
Corning announced Willow glass last June, and provided manufacturers of smarthpones, tablets and tv’s all directly from samples. The special glass is produced with a minimum thickness of only 100µm, similar to a sheet of paper.
