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News - April 02, 2008:
Have you ever dropped your cell
phone or accidentally hit your MP3 player against something and
broken its display glass? Now researchers at the Kazuo Inamori
School Engineering at Alfred University in New York have found a way
to strengthen glass used in mobile appliances so they will be able
to withstand falls, bumps and hits without breaking.
The development is the result of research conducted by graduate
student Jeff Olin; his research advisor, Arun Varshneya, professor
of Glass Science & Engineering; and employees at Saxon Glass
Technologies Inc., a business housed in Alfred’s Ceramic Corridor
Innovation Center. “We believe that the strengthened glass can
withstand handling much better than other glasses currently on the
market,” says Varshneya, who also is the president of Saxon Glass
Technologies.
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“The glass window is expected to
withstand the drop of a quarter-pound steel ball from a height of
roughly two feet,” Varshneya says.
The professor/entrepreneur anticipates a growing market for cell
phones in Brazil, Russia, India and China, based on predictions that
half the world’s population will possess cell phones before the end
of the next decade. “We know the demand will be about a billion of
these strengthened glass windows a year,” he says. The project was
conducted under the auspices of the Center for Advanced Ceramics
Technology (CACT), which spurs regional economic development with
funds it receives from New York State. (Visit www.alfred.edu)
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