WHAT IS A SAPPHIRE WINDOW?
We manufacture high quality, precise components and assemblies.
Overview
In many industries, a clear but protective shield is important for allowing visibility while maintaining safety. Additionally, scratch resistance is becoming a more important factor in eyeglasses, microscopes, windshields, and many other products, necessitating an innovative approach to an old solution.
For years, glass or glass-like products have been used, but sapphire windows have been making waves in the recent decade as a safe alternative that can withstand even the most abrasive or caustic materials, all while providing the most clarity possible.
So, what is a sapphire window, and how is it better than regular glass? Learn more today with this guide from Analytical Components, your manufacturing source for sapphire windows and flat stock.
What Is a Sapphire Window?
A sapphire window is a clear glass-like substance that is crystalline. Made from synthetic lab-created sapphire, these windows can be created without depleting a natural sapphire resource.
While the crystalline window or flat stock is similar in appearance to glass, sapphire is much more versatile and resistant to abrasives, pressure, temperature, and many other environmental conditions that would otherwise break regular silicate glass.
Lab-grown sapphire is grown in a specific crystalline structure to minimize birefringence, then cut to the desired size and shape necessary to create the end-product. The flat stock is then polished to the desired finish to maintain optical clarity and surface smoothness.
The process for creating these windows is much more involved than that of conventional glass, but the benefits it provides are well-worth the extended effort and time it takes to produce.
Sapphire is extremely durable, resistant to scratches, scrapes, dents, impacts, and many other damages that might otherwise break conventional silica glass. Pound for pound, sapphire can withstand more than quartz, which is also known for its durability.
The sapphire used in these windows is synthetically grown in a laboratory which helps speed up the process and availability of the end component.
These stones are created through a process called hydrothermal synthesis which closely mimics natural formations. This process subjects a “seed crystal” of sapphire to intense levels of artificial heat and pressure in a laboratory setting which causes the crystal to expand in the expected crystalline form and material.
Sapphire windows are created from this material, which is then cut into rods then sliced into thin discs, which are then ground, polished, and layered according to the necessary specifications.
Depending on the application, the sapphire window may also be coated with certain materials to accommodate particular needs, such as anti-reflective (AR) coating for optical clarity in glasses, telescopes, and microscopes.
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What are Sapphire Windows Used For?
These items can be used both in manufacturing applications and commercial products. This polished sapphire material can be used anywhere from cell phone screens, cameras, microscopes, and eyeglass lenses to military-grade equipment like break-resistant windshields, diving equipment, and submarine viewports.
With such a wide versatility, many consumer products are seeing improvements from regular glass to sapphire windows, where in previous decades the cost of creating this material was too great to make available at prices that would allow the public to benefit from the material. As costs lower, however, this glass is becoming more widely available and replacing many glass-like components on the market today.
Why Are Sapphire Windows Such High Performers?
Sapphire windows are highly prized for their ability to withstand a wide variety of environmental conditions. Commercially available sapphire windows and flat stock may be prized for its optical clarity and superior scratch resistance when used for eyeglasses, camera lenses, or microscope lenses. (1) This consists of part of the reasons why sapphire makes great windows.
Manufacturing-grade sapphire windows are often prized for their ability to offer a clear viewport where the manufacturing conditions would disfigure or break regular glass:
Sapphire Is Highly Robust at Extreme Temperatures
The main benefit of utilizing sapphire in the manufacturing process is its ability to withstand extreme temperatures with minimal surface or structural wear. Between this and its chemical resistance, this makes sapphire glass an ideal choice for furnaces, boats, shields, and combustion chambers.
Sapphire has the top temperature rating of any optical materials and can withstand temperatures of 1950°C before a change in shape or dimension occurs and can remain perfectly flat in temperatures up to 1700°C.
This ability to withstand high temperatures is a promising development and has enabled further innovation of new materials and products in the chemical and temperature-based manufacturing industry.
Sapphire Windows and Flats are Chemical and Plasma Resistant
Because of its chemical resistance, chemicals will not stick to sapphire glass, even in higher temperatures. This makes sapphire tubes and rods ideal in applications that come in contact with these caustic materials such as acids, plasma, or molten metals, allowing these materials to be worked around and handled safely.
Sapphire can maintain robust in extreme temperatures all with zero degradation in both oxidizing and inert atmospheres, making it the perfect choice for scientific fields and precision equipment in environments where it would be exposed to chemical abrasives.
The only materials known to scratch sapphire glass rods and tubes are hot caustic salts.
Beyond this, sapphire glass is known to remain bio-inert, making it ideal not just in manufacturing applications, but also in medical applications where it is essential to maintain sanitary conditions for the health of the patient and staff.
Sapphire Is Resistant to High-Pressure Environments
Sapphire glass can withstand high-pressure environments up to ten times better than steel, making it ideal for protecting high-pressure areas in manufacturing that require a viewport, or in the transfer and containment of high-pressure materials that would otherwise pose a safety hazard.
Sapphire Can Maintain Clarity Under Abrasive Conditions
Sapphire glass has allowed easier development and innovation in areas that require optical clarity in abrasive conditions.
Examples of these applications, such as in submarines, blast shields, or equipment containing abrasive substances are all areas that benefit from sapphire glass’ ability to withstand strong abrasives. Rod bearing and standoff applications also benefit from the robustness of sapphire glass.
This clarity is useful not just in harsh contact applications but has also found its way into consumer products, such as in microscopy equipment and camera or eyeglass lenses, as the material is more difficult to scratch and damage with daily use.
Analytical Components: Your Source for Sapphire Windows
Analytical Components has over five decades of experience serving a global customer base in precision component manufacturing and engineering. This experience includes working with and providing businesses with sapphire windows and flat stock of all grades.
We put our resources to work for you, providing you with the highest quality precision components available on the market to support your business needs in commercial products or manufacturing.
Are you ready to leverage our team’s market knowledge and product requirement expertise? Talk to one of our experts today about designing a bespoke solution for you or discuss your OEM requirements for replacement parts.
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- Gordon Kelly, iPhone 6 Sapphire Display: Everything You Need to Know, https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordonkelly/2014/07/25/iphone-6-sapphire-display-everything-you-need-to-know/?sh=3c0918477d3e