Corning Gorilla Glass

Disclosure: Millennium River is an independent website that uses hyperlinks. Some of these links are affiliate links. When you click and purchase a product(s) through these links, I may earn a commission on qualifying sales. This is done at no extra expense to you. You may also support this website via PayPal. Unless it is clearly stated, the content is not sponsored.

Familiarity

What does the Samsung Galaxy S10+, Sony Xperia 1, LG V50 ThinQ 5G, OnePlus 7 Pro, Huawei Mate 20 Pro, and Asus ZenFone 6 all have in common? All of these smartphones are equipped with Gorilla Glass 6, 5, or 3 (in the case of the Asus Zenfone 6’s back) on their back or front panels. Most consumers would likely be quicker to point out that these smartphones demand high price tags, but what about the durability of their glass panels? Does glass matter to consumers? Why do most manufacturers seek Corning’s Gorilla Glass? All of these questions, plus more, shall be explored in this article.

History Of Corning

Founding

The history of Corning dates all the way back to 1851, in the New England region of the United States. The Houghtons, creators of Corning, were looking for ways to stand out from the steep competition with rival glass makers. The Houghtons decided that they would make Corning stand out with expert knowledge in the make up, chemistry, and physics of glass: an inorganic, transparent, amorphous, material that is used in numerous applications.

Edison’s Interest

In 1879, American businessman Thomas Edison reached out to Corning with his idea for improving the light bulb. Edison needed the correct glass to encase the fragile filaments that made the light bulb. This glass needed to be stronger and more resistant to damage than glass typically used in other objects such as windows and jars. By 1880, Edison had chosen Corning as his exclusive supplier for the glass bulbs he needed to bring improved lighting to places all over the world.

Railroad Troubles

In 1912, American railroads encountered a dangerous problem: cracking glass. The glass globes of signal lanterns, crucial to the railroads operation, were occasionally shattering due to the thermal expansion caused from the country’s variable climate and seasons. To address this problem, Corning developed heat-resistant, low expansion glass that is capable of handling abrupt jolts of heat and cold. Their glass performed very well, which resulted in the railroads doing fewer replacements. Despite the success, Corning did not stop there, and had its scientists investigate new applications for the material.

The Creation of Pyrex

In 1913, Corning physicist Jesse Littleton, requests for his wife to bake a cake on a piece of heat resistant glass developed in 1908. The glass endured the entire baking process. Inspired from this, Corning creates an improved glass formula in 1915, and brands it as Pyrex — a line of cookware that still exists up to this day in 2019.

The Corning Plant

In 1952, Corning opens a manufacturing plant in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. This is the same plant that would later become the birthplace of Gorilla Glass. The Harrodsburg plant originally manufactured glass pressings for numerous military, academic, consumer, and scientific applications. During the mid-1980s, the plant shifted into developing glass substrates for the LCD market.

Apple’s Calling

In 2006, Apple approached Corning with a major request: make glass for their first iPhone that was scheduled to be released in 2007. Having only six months to make it, the company had to act quick, but maintain their quality and standards. Sending the wrong message, would be the last thing Corning would want to do. Thanks to the deep knowledge of glass that Corning had with experts at Sullivan Park, as well as the expertise they have with the manufacturing process in-house, they were able to produce the first version of Gorilla Glass within 6 months. The glass was then used on the first iPhone in 2007. Oddly, many of Corning’s clients now have nondisclosure agreements from Corning before they use Gorilla Glass on their mobile devices. Apple is a notable example of this. Others such as Samsung, LG, and Sony for instance, openly tout their use of Gorilla Glass on their specification sheets.

How It Is Made

Fusion Process

Corning touts its trademark fusion manufacturing process as the heart of their leadership in glass technology, and the cover glass sector. This exceptionally precise, highly automated, draw process creates a narrow sheet of cover glass with fresh surface quality, fantastic optical clarity, and dimensional stability. These attributes are essential for cover glass used in consumer applications.

The process starts when raw materials are mixed into a glass composition, which is melted and conditioned. The molten glass is fed into an isopipe, overfilling until the glass flows uniformly over both sides. The glass then rejoins, or fuses, at the bottom, where it is drawn down to form a continuous, extremely thin sheet of flat glass. The glass is not touched by human hands or other things that would bring flaws into the glass’ surface. The same fusion process is used in Corning’s LCD glass. The structure of Corning Gorilla Glass allows a deep layer of chemical strengthening through on ion exchange process. In this process, individual glass parts are cut from the main sheet and go through an ion exchange process.

Ion Exchange Process

Ion exchange is a chemical strengthening procedure where large ions are pushed into the glass surface, forming a state of compression. Gorilla Glass is specially designed to boost this behavior. The glass is placed in a hot bath of molten salt at a temperature of about 400 °C. Smaller sodium ions exit the glass, while larger potassium ions from the salt bath take their place. These large ions take up more space and are pressed together when the glass cools, creating a layer of compressive stress on the surface of the glass. Gorilla Glass’ composition allows the potassium ions to disperse far into the surface, making high compressive stress deep into the glass. This layer of compression produces a surface that should be more damage-resistant.

Corning’s Research Facilities

Being a major producer and researcher of glass, Corning continues to explore new glass compositions and process innovations at their three major research facilities: Sullivan Park in Corning, New York; Corning Technology Center in Shizuoka, Japan; and Corning Research Center Taiwan in Hsinchu, Taiwan.

Gorilla Glass 6

Tests And Claims

With the LG V50 ThinQ 5G and Samsung Galaxy S10+ having thicknesses of 8.3mm and 7.8mm respectively, and both devices boasting a screen size of 16.2cm, it is clear manufacturers favour very thin devices with huge screens. Not to mention that many also feature glass backs, too. To deal with the increasing sizes and material choice, Corning states that its scientists engineered the tougher and more durable Corning Gorilla Glass 6, surpassing Gorilla Glass 5 to address it. They go on to further mention that Gorilla Glass 6 was subjected to a new and rigorous test methodology within their labs. On average, Gorilla Glass 6 survived 15 consecutive drops from 1 meter onto rough surfaces and is twice as strong of the former Gorilla Glass 5. Corning also said that competitors did not even survive the first drop.

Glass Still Breaks

As tough as Gorilla Glass 6 may be, it will still break if it faces enough damage. In fact, some sources have even pointed out that while Gorilla Glass 6 is more drop-resistant than its former iterations, it scratches just as easily as they do. This is due to the internal stress in the manufacturing process that makes the thinner glass just as scratch prone. It also does not help that some consumers do not bother with screen protectors or rugged cases to minimize the impact of a fall or blow. This leads to the next point of discussion: Does glass durability matter to consumers?

Does Glass Durability Matter to Consumers?

Yes, for many consumers broken glass is a very inconvenient, painful thing to deal with. Most shoppers probably do not go out their way to look for smartphones featuring a specific iteration of Gorilla Glass. But even then, manufacturers know that smartphone durability is very important.

Why Do Most Manufacturers Seek Corning’s Gorilla Glass?

Corning’s longstanding reputation of making and researching glass is naturally what attracted other manufacturers to buy their glass. As noted earlier, an unknown number of clients have nondisclosure agreements. This strongly suggests that these clients must buy from Corning if they wish to remain anonymous, at least until their contracts expire.

Are Record Labels Necessary?

Disclosure: Millennium River is an independent website that uses hyperlinks. Some of these links are affiliate links. When you click and purchase a product(s) through these links, I may earn a commission on qualifying sales. This is done at no extra expense to you. You may also support this website via PayPal. Unless it is clearly stated, the content is not sponsored.

Introduction

What is a music or record label? Why does it appear that every musician has one, or tries to get signed to one? Is that true? Are they really as glamorous as they seem? Are they still necessary in 2019 and the going forward? All of these questions plus more will explored within this article.

What Is A Record Label?

As the name suggests, record labels are companies that produce, record, and market the recorded music videos and songs of artists. Record companies not only produce and record, but also deal with artists and repertoire (also known as A&R), publish media, marketing, and copyright enforcement. Marketing and A&R are some of the most important departments within a record company.

The artists and repertoire department is in charge of discovering new creators. A&R staff work interpersonally with the musicians that they sign. Signing is when an artist makes an exclusive contract with their record company. The company will perform a variety actions, including song selection, selecting the people that will create the album, the location of where the album will be recorded, and more. A&R staff can be seen as the link between the recording musician, and the other departments within the company.

Knowing when an album, song or music video released from an artist is available, is extremely important to the success of both the artist and record. This is where the marketing department comes into action. The marketing power of both major and independent labels is crucial. It can make all the difference for artists finding new fans, and exploring areas, they may not have been able to reach.

Major Versus Independent Labels

Ownership

There are many labels, but there are only 3 that own virtually everything else: Sony Music Entertainment (SME), Warner Music Group (WMG), and Universal Music Group (UMG).  In turn, all of these are ultimately owned by the multinational conglomerates: Sony Corporation, Access Industries, and Vivendi SA respectively. These conglomerates are where the long chain of label ownership traces back to. Subsidiaries do have their own staff, can sign their own artists, and make most of their financial decisions, but their parent companies are responsible for ultimate decisions. Unprofitable performance can cause a subsidiary to go defunct. This would then have their artists distributed among other labels under their major label.

Why Go Major

The number one reason why an artist will try to get signed with a major label, is because of money and grand exposure. After all, major labels have hundreds of millions, and can easily handle the costs of signing, developing, recording, promoting, publicizing, and selling music in ways that an independent label would not be able to. All that purchasing power and spending does come at cost: competition and control. Record labels usually set the terms and conditions of an artist’s contract in their favour. This can include anything to the way the music sounds, lyrics, location settings, and others. The relationship between a musician and record label is supposed to be mutually beneficial. This is certainly not always the case. Relationships can become sour, especially when labels renegotiate contracts to make it more beneficial to the label, and not the artist.

Why Go Independent

The term “Independent” may suggest that it means an artist produces and sells without the backing of a company. Truth is, it does not. An independent (also called indie) recording label is a label that functions without the funding of major organizations from major labels. This alone spells out much of the negatives associated with independent labels: far less influence, spending power, marketing, low tour support, no big advances,  and some, not all, are disorganized.

The major upside to independent labels is that they do not have the pressure to chase and focus on mass appeal music. Artists have more creative freedom, can form closer relationships with label staff since they are smaller, and contracts are usually not as complex and demanding as major label contracts.

Lion’s Share

An obvious downfault to recording labels is the lion’s share of money they take from artist’s works. This is also why some consumers criticize labels for being greedy, and not prioritizing their artist.

21st Century And The Internet

The major reason why so many musicians felt the need to be on a label was because of the exposure, money and marketing they offered them. The 20th century and earlier, did not have all the tools and equipment enjoyed today. Enter the 21st century now, where Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, Tidal, Amazon Music, Deezer, Napster, Google Music, Shazam, YouTube, Instagram, and Twitter exists. In addition to this, artists can even create their own websites and sell directly, without the use of any middle grounds. With the existence of these platforms, aspiring musicians no longer need to have the urge to be on any label of the sort to make it. All of these platforms can be used to either sell or promote their music. Instagram and Twitter particularly, stand out as powerful tools that allow people to promote and spread the word about the existence of their music at zero cost.

Best of all, they will own all their rights, no complex contracts, they keep all their money or pay small fees for some platforms, and make their own terms. This begs two important questions: Why do labels still exist? Why are artists still sticking with them in 2019? The short answer is because it works for them. For others, it may be because of pressure or lengthy contracts they have been locked into. As the disadvantages of being a musician that is 100% self-published are explored below, it easier to understand how remaining signed to label is the preferred way of business for some artists.

No Financial Backing

A major reason why a lot of aspiring artists want a record deal, is because they want money behind their release. Major record labels can bring advances, and even independent labels are willing to deal with many of the costs related to releasing a record. Self-releasing means that all the financial burden is placed upon the artist themselves. This means that if such artist does not sell their product well, they risk facing heavy debt.

Lack Of Contacts

Record companies have a plethora of contacts in place that make it easier and smoother to promote their releases. This includes the media, agents, promoters, and more. Artists that are new to the music industry, will have to spend time building up their contacts to go further. As expected, this can take a long time.

Potentially Steep Learning Curve

Yet another notable problem with being new to the music industry, is the learning curve that it comes with. Releasing music and discovering what does, or does not work can take time. Research or even attending a school dedicated to musical careers can significantly help to negate this problem. This will not be the case for individuals that decided to enter the field out of passion, and had zero former music exposure.

Full-Time Commitment

Any artist that wishes to pursue music for a living, must give it full-time commitment. Writing, recording, editing, arranging, promoting, and booking are things that require quality commitment. It is a lot of work, that can sometimes result in burn out, without proper planning and organization.

More Choice Than Ever Before

Whether an aspiring artist pursues a major label, independent label, or goes the 100% self-published route, there is one thing certain: more choice than ever before. More labels and online websites exist now than what has been available, especially when comparing the 20th and 21st centuries. Even the numbers of songs within genres, whether they be classical, country, ethnic, ambient, soundtrack, or instrumental, have increased.