Durabis (

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

for "you will last") is a brand name for a clear

polymer A polymer (; Greek '' poly-'', "many" + '' -mer'', "part") is a substance or material consisting of very large molecules called macromolecules, composed of many repeating subunits. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, both synthetic a ...

coating developed by the TDK Corporation. It was unveiled at CES 2005 to remove the need for "cumbersome" protective cartridges to protect the media’s recording layer. The need for a protective polymer arose due to the data layer on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

discs being much closer to the surface of the disc than in other disc formats, such as HD DVD. One of its principal applications at first was for scratch resistance in Blu-ray and other

optical disc In computing and optical disc recording technologies, an optical disc (OD) is a flat, usually circular disc that encodes binary data ( bits) in the form of pits and lands on a special material, often aluminum, on one of its flat surface ...

s. It is claimed to be tough enough to resist screwdriver damage and make scratched optical discs ( CDs and DVDs) a "thing of the past". To meet Blu-ray's specifications, TDK's coating had to be less than 0.1 mm thick, be hard enough to resist considerable damage, and be transparent enough to be easily read through. According to a filing with the

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is an agency in the U.S. Department of Commerce that serves as the national patent office and trademark registration authority for the United States. The USPTO's headquarters are in Alex ...

, the process essentially spin-coats two layers onto discs. One is for protection against scratches, and the other protects against stains and oils. While Blu-ray mandates the use of a scratch-resistant coating, it does not specify what coating is used, and both

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

and Panasonic have their own independent hard coating technologies that are primarily in use on Blu-ray pre-recorded discs. A TDK spokesman says the present protective layer represents "the first generation" of the coating and that the company has been refining the technology to better suit Blu-ray Discs. Although it might seem possible to adapt the polymer to other uses in LCD, CRT, and plasma screens, TDK plans to target the DVD market for now, because scratches are so common on DVDs that in the rental market, they may only last about 12 to 13 rentals on average.

References

{{cite patent , country = US , number = 7235292 , status = patent , title = Article with composite hard coat layer and method for forming composite hard coat layer , pubdate = 2007-06-26 , gdate = 2007-06-26 , fdate = 2003-02-17 , pridate = 2002-02-22 , inventor = Naoki Hayashida, Kazushi Tanaka , assign1 = TDK Corp

External links

TDK Durabis Website

* [http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220050123741%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20050123741&RS=DN/20050123741 Patent Application: Object With Composite Hard Coating Layer And Method Of Forming Composite Hard Coating Layer]
Patent Application: Methods for Producing Optical Recording Medium and Optical Recording Medium
Polymers Brand name materials Japanese inventions