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Sourcing Custom Industrial Display Cover Glass: 100% Key Specifications For Your Excellent Quality Project
Sourcing Custom Industrial Display Cover Glass Let Me Tell You How To Do
As a new buyer to custom display cover glass, you may feel puzzle how to do to make the purchase correctly, or maybe simply imagine it just a piece of glass with coloring on it is OK, but actually final product is total can’t be used. So for this article let me tell you how to do step by step, then you will have more familiar with this industry and understand the way to order correct cover glass lens.
How Weiman Fabricate When You Sourcing Custom Industrial Display Cover Glass?
1.Raw material purchase: Cover glass substrate and inks.
2.Design internal drawings(cutting, CNC, silk screen print etc).
3.Fabrication: Cutting, CNC processing(grinding, drilling, slot), tempering(chemically or thermally), cleaning(ultrasonic clean) and packaging(foils).
Optional Processes: Silk screen print(resin ink or ceramic ink), coatings(AR, AG, AF), bonding(Adhesive transfer tape, VHB tape, OCA tape).
The custom display cover glass timing listed below for your reference:
Understand Processes, So How To Sourcing Custom Industrial Display Cover Glass?
As an OEM, we fabricate the cover glass base on customer’s design, so drawing(in CAD format) with all details is first important issue(including dimensions, tolerance, printing patterns and other requirements).
So let’s check every production step:
Raw materials:
Glass substrate:
For cover glass, there are various of brands in market, how to choose correct one? Let me tell you:
1.There are mainly seperately into 2 kinds: Soda lime glass and aluminosilicate, of course other materials also OK but not frequently.
2.For soda lime glass, it’s a cheaper option but a little weak in hardness(6H) and a little greenish when view from edge.
The aliminosilicate will be a little higher cost but better hardness(7-9H) and optical performance(white when view from edge).
To soda lime glass, there are various of brands in China domestic or oversea(AGC, most used for stable quality).
To aluminosilicate, there also many brands in China domestic(Panda, Chiyan etc), Japan(Dragon Tail), US(Corning Gorilla), Schott etc.
The regular thickness from 0.33mm to 2mm(some brands with 2.5mm and 3.0mm).
Sourcing Custom Industrial Display Cover Glass Substrate Table:
| Property | AGC Soda-Lime Glass | Dragontrail (AGC) | Panda Glass (Tunghsu Group) | Gorilla Glass (Corning) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glass Type | Standard soda-lime silicate | High-alumina silicate | High-alumina silicate (ion-exchange) | High-alumina silicate (alkali-aluminosilicate) |
| Manufacturing Process | Float glass process | Ion-exchange chemical strengthening | Ion-exchange chemical strengthening | Ion-exchange chemical strengthening |
| Typical Applications | Low-end smartphones, feature phones, non-cover-glass consumer electronics | Mid-to-high-end smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, automotive displays | Smartphones, tablets, touch panels, wearables | Premium smartphones, tablets, laptops, wearables, automotive, architectural |
| Vickers Hardness (HV) | ~550–600 | ~600–650 | ~600–670 | ~650–720 (Gen 5/6) |
| Fracture Toughness (MPa·m¹/²) | ~0.7 | ~0.7–0.8 | ~0.75–0.85 | ~0.8–0.9 |
| Surface Compressive Stress (CS, MPa) | ~400 (as strengthened) | ~650–750 | ~700–800 | ~800–900 (Gen 5/6) |
| Depth of Compressive Layer (DOL, µm) | ~6–10 | ~20–30 | ~30–40 | ~40–50 (Gen 5/6) |
| Drop Performance (1.6m concrete) | Low survival rate (~10–20%) | Moderate (~40–60%) | High (~60–75%) | Very High (~80%+) |
| Scratch Resistance | Low–Medium | Medium | High | Very High |
| Optical Clarity (Transmission) | ~92% | ~91.5% | ~91.5–92% | ~91–91.5% |
| Bend Strength (4-point, MPa) | ~100–150 | ~250–350 | ~350–450 | ~450–550 |
| Thermal Stability | Low (ΔT ~30–40°C) | Moderate (ΔT ~60–80°C) | High (ΔT ~80–100°C) | High (ΔT ~100–150°C) |
| Key Strengths | Low cost, easy to manufacture | Better drop resistance than soda-lime | Strong chemical strengthening, good cost-performance | Best overall drop + scratch resistance |
| Key Weaknesses | Brittle, poor impact resistance | Lower scratch resistance vs. Gorilla | Lower brand recognition, variable QC | Highest manufacturing cost |
Inks:
To sourcing custom industrial display cover glass, inks also an essential points to silk screen print correctly, there are mainly 2 kinds of inks in market:
Ceramic ink: It mainly focus on display cover glass thickness 3.0mm above with thermal tempering for outdoor purpose, but if high requirement on cover glass flatness and light block capability, it may not suitable.
Resin ink: It can be devided into 2 kinds: common low temperature ink and for outdoor UV resistance purpose(UV resistance ink like Seiko).
Cutting & CNC processing:
It’s the important step to form the shapes of the display cover glass. So we will need the drawing in CAD file with tolerances:
Contour(Length / width): +/-0.05mm.
Hole(Size / location):+/-0.1mm.
Edge treatment: 2D / 2.5D / 3D and below:
Silk screen print:
This process is done through screen(your CAD file pattern design and color definition), ink and machines. More colors mean more screens and printing times, so cost will also increase too.
So it should be considered when sourcing custom industrial display cover glass.
Tempering:
There are mainly 2 kinds of temperings(thermally VS chemically):
Thermally tempering: To custom cover glass, the thickness usually 3mm below, the flatness and optical performance requirements are high, so this way isn’t regular choice.
Chemically strengthening: It’s the most frequent way though higher cost and not belong to safety glass definition, but good performance in flatness and optical performance. To verify if chemically strengthening result is good or not, ask us to offer inspection report(CS / DOL reference above table in different glass substrates).
Coatings:
It mainly refers to 3 kinds of coatings including AR, AG and AF.
AR means anti reflection, it’s a kind of electroplating coating to increase display cover glass light transmittance. To glass itself the light transmittance is 91% above, with coating at single side increase 3-4%, double sides up to 99% at most.
AG means anti glare, there are 3 kinds of solutions including acid etching, silk screen print and film, the acid etching is the most frequently used. The purpose is to anti glare the sunlight on cover glass surface avoid the eye to cause danger. For indoor some customers also use it for premium appearance with its texture. So light transmittance, haze and roughness(Ra) can be customized.
AF mean anti fingerprint, there usually 2 kinds of solutions including spray and electroplating. To spray it’s cheaper but less durable(several thousand times) and electroplating, it’s more durable but higher costs.
It can protect the AR layer from easy remove and easy clean purpose.
Below is a simple picture to tell differences among them for your better understand and make the decision:
Bonding:
In Weiman, we usually use 3M tape including:
Adhesive transfer tape(carrier free thin PSA), there various of options depend on different thicknesses.
VHB tape(acrylic foam structural bonding), different color / thickness optional.
OCA tape(OCA optically clear adhesive), it mainly used for display lamination.
If there any question, contact us!