The Motorola Droid is, by far, an industrial-type phone. Solid in the hand, it just feels tough. And that's not by accident. While any glass screen can be cracked, the Droid's is less susceptible to scratches, thanks to its special "Gorilla Glass." We'll leave the science to the scientists. But it has something to do with ions. Here's how it was broken down to SmartPlanet:
Like many glasses used in these kinds of applications, Gorilla glass chemically strengthened. Glass is a brittle material. Brittle materials are extremely strong under compression but extremely weak under tension. When you chemically temper a glass, you immerse it in a salt bath and you stuff larger ions in all the surfaces and put them all under compression.What’s unique about Gorilla Glass is that because of its inherent composition, it can allow those larger ions to penetrate the surface more deeply to increase the compression tolerance and tolerate deeper scratches.
So let's hear it for ions, everybody. [Gorilla Glass via Gizmodo]
