Saint-Gobain Crystals’ sapphire glass
Sapphire windows can withstand extreme mechanical and chemical conditions, and let visible and infrared rays through.
Saint-Gobain manufactures the world’s largest sapphire windows. They are 30 cm wide and more than 50 cm long.
They are used in the civilian and military aviation sectors, especially to facilitate night or low visibility (fog, rain, etc.) landings: an infrared camera placed under the aircraft’s nose and protected by a sapphire windshield determines the distance from the ground and makes the manoeuvre safe.
Sapphire is the hardest material after diamonds. It is also chemically inert. It is a very pure, very rigid, and transparent monocrystal. Sapphire is manufactured by solidifying melted ultra pure raw materials.
Meticulous control of the thermal conditions makes it possible to grow monocrystalline parts in various formats (windows, cylinders, etc.).The resulting parts are then cut to shape, trimmed, and polished to perfection.
