Patent ID: 8776547

Claim:
A method for strengthening one or a plurality of the edges of a glass article cut from a large sheet of ion-exchanged glass, the method comprising the steps of providing a glass article having alkali metal ions in said glass, and having one or a plurality of edges defined by a chemically strengthened first and second glass face, and a selected thickness, wherein the one or a plurality of said edges is not chemically strengthened; providing a ion-exchange material for applying to said one or plurality of edges to thereby chemically strengthen said one or plurality of edge, said ion-exchange material containing alkali metal ions largo larger than the alkali metal ions in said glass; applying said ion-exchange material to said one or plurality of edges, heating said ion-exchange material applied to said one or plurality of edges to a selected temperature for a selected time to thereby exchange smaller ions in said glass for larger ions in said ion-exchange material; and removing said ion-exchange material from said one or plurality of edges to thereby provide an article having a selected compressive stress to a selected depth along said one or plurality of edges; wherein the first and second faces of the glass are cooled to a temperature of less than 200° C. during the ion-exchange of the edge(s).