SCHOTT to offer its multifunctional DARO coating for touch displays on CONTURAN® glass

The multifunctional DARO coating is particularly well suited for use in interactive kiosk systems in public places, casino game consoles, for equipping devices that are used in marine and medical technology or for other technical displays. SCHOTT will be exhibiting its products and innovations at Electronica in Munich (Hall A3, Booth 339) from November 11 – 14.



With its glass CONTURAN® DARO, SCHOTT combines an anti-reflective coating with a film that protects against dirt on the cover glasses of professional touch displays for the first time ever. This photograph shows the left half of the picture with and the right half without the DARO coating. Photo: SCHOTT.

Today, anti-reflective coatings offer the best way to increase the contrast of displays in bright environments. Nevertheless, when used on touch screens, when they are touched fingerprints are left behind and this makes for an unattractive appearance. By combining its coating technologies, SCHOTT now offers a permanent anti-reflective coating that strengthens touch screens made of glass. There are currently very few other products available on the market for manufacturers that feature coatings that are capable of resisting the burden of being touched many times and the chemical stresses fingerprints cause without attacking the surface or making it difficult to clean.

“It is important to us to offer a solution that meets or exceeds the increasing demands of product designers, yet enhances user friendliness,” explains Marten Walther, Head of Application Development at the SCHOTT Advanced Optics plant in Grünenplan. SCHOTT has introduced this coating on the basis of its anti-reflective glass CONTURAN® that many customers all over the world already use for their displays. With its high-performance multifunctional DARO coating on CONTURAN® glass, the company is extending the areas of application for anti-reflective products all the way to the high-end area of professional touch displays. SCHOTT is currently introducing this product to potential customers in Europe, Asia, and North America.

SCHOTT uses the so-called sol-gel coating technology for its CONTURAN® DARO glass which provides the foundation for applying an oleophobic nanolayer in a chemically strong manner and therefore offers extreme long-term resistance. This can be seen in the mechanical resistance tests in which the DARO coating has stood up to more than 450,000 cycles, for example. “This equates to a lifespan of more than 25 years, even if the coating was to be cleaned 20 times a day,” Walther explains. “By performing long-term stress tests, we want to demonstrate the high quality of this material to our customers and show them the great benefits that our new DARO coating offers, especially in professional display applications,” he adds.

The main performance features of the DARO coating from SCHOTT:

• A coating with a combination of anti-reflective and permanent dirt-repellent properties

• Reduces visual reflections by more than 90 percent

• Creates an extremely strong surface on touch displays

• Resists more than 450,000 cases of exposure to mechanical friction

• Tested resistance against salt spray fog for more than 100 days

• Chemically inert

• Allows for displays with high contrast even in extremely light environments

• Durability

 www.schott.com/daro

SCHOTT is an international technology group with 130 years of experience in the areas of specialty glasses and materials and advanced technologies. SCHOTT ranks number one in the world with many of its products. Its core markets are the household appliance, pharmaceutical, electronics, optics and transportation industries. The company is strongly committed to contributing to its customers’ success and making SCHOTT an important part of people’s lives with high-quality products and intelligent solutions. SCHOTT is committed to managing its business in a sustainable manner and supporting its employees, society and the environment. The SCHOTT Group maintains close proximity to its customers with manufacturing and sales units in 35 countries. Its workforce of 15,400 employees generated worldwide sales of 1.84 billion euros for the 2012/2013 fiscal year. SCHOTT AG, with its headquarters in Mainz (Germany) is owned by the Carl Zeiss Foundation. www.schott.com