The availability of thin, flexible, and damage-resistant glasses is a key requisite for many of today's glass applications, including windshields, façade elements, or display covers for personal electronic devices. Brittleness and the high susceptibility of glasses to surface flaws result in catastrophic failure under load, with attainable practical strengths far below the theoretical limits. 1 This problem has stimulated intensive research on the fundamental deformation modes in glasses and their implications for the generation of surface defects. 2,3 At the same time, various methods are employed which enhance the practical strength of glasses. 4 Among these, the most popular are to equip the glass product with a residual surface compressive stress layer through thermal or chemical post-processing. 5 Chemically strengthened glasses are produced through diffusive ion exchange, which typically involves the immersion of an alkali-containing glass into a

Chemical strengthening by diffusive ion exchange (IOX) is a common method to improve the mechanical performance of glass products. However, the process of ion-stuffing is often associated with an increase of surface hardness and a decrease of the resistance to abrasive wear during scratching, even when the thickness of the exchanged layer is low. Autoclave steam-treatment presents a way to compensate the enhanced surface brittleness accompanying IOX. It causes a notable shift in the load threshold for microabrasion to more abrasion-resistant glasses. Subject to the specific processing parameters, the softening effect is constrained to a surface layer of less than 500 nm in thickness; therefore, the overall compressive stress profile is not affected and the advantages of IOX strengthening are retained. In turn, ion-stuffing by IOX counteracts severe autoclave corrosion of soda-lime silicate glasses, making them suitable for a combination of both processes.

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