Asahi Glass Co. Ltd. (AGC) recently announced plans to establish a chemical strengthening facility for Dragontrail™ specialty glass used as cover glass for smart phones and tablet PCs, at its Kansai Plant in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. This new chemical strengthening facility can reportedly handle up to sixth-generation (1850 x 1500 mm) glass, enabling the efficient production of thinner next-generation touchscreens. Operation is scheduled to begin in March.

A key to the efficient production of double-layered touchscreens is large-sized chemically strengthened glass. A large number of cover glass with built-in touch sensor can reportedly be manufactured at a time by neatly arranging touch sensors on a large sheet of chemically strengthened glass and cutting the glass into pieces of the intended size. As the touchscreens manufactured based on this method are increasingly adopted for use in smart phones and tablet PCs in 2013 onward, AGC’s high-quality G6-size chemically strengthened Dragontrail manufactured at the new facility is expected to contribute to the creation of even thinner smart phones, tablet PCs, Ultrabook, and other touchscreen devices.

For additional information, visit www.agc.com.