A team led by Cao Xin, the Deputy President of Bengbu Glass Research Institute, a research unit of China National Building Material Co., Ltd, was carrying out a falling ball test on the ultra-thin glass developed by them. He tested the glass by dropping a steel ball of 55 grams onto it from a meter above. That impact was equivalent to the force of a car running at 150 kilometers per hour. The glass remained intact.

The sheet glass being tested just came off the production line in April, 2018. This ultra-thin glass is only 0.12 millimeter thick, the thinnest glass in the world manufactured using the float process. As the ultra-thin glass can withstand such a large impact, no wonder Cao Xin claims it to be the world’s stunning achievement.

Ultra-thin glass refers to glass with a thickness range from 0.1-1.1mm. It is one of the core materials in the electronic display industry and used in display screens for mobile phones, computers and televisions. The thinner the glass, the better its transparency and flexibility, and the lighter its weight.  0.12 mm is truly among the thinnest. As Mr. Cao said, the next goal for the institute is to reduce the thickness to 0.1 mm and aims to take a lead position in the world’s ultra-thin glass industry.