Most adults think about what they want to leave behind for their grandchildren.
At Corning, innovative breakthroughs of a half-century ago are ensuring something we won’t leave them: Dirty, toxic air.
The seeds of that promise began in 1970, when the United States government announced the Clean Air Act. The legislation strictly limited emissions from both industrial sources and vehicles on the road. To be compliant, automakers needed a way to dramatically reduce pollutants from their new models. That’s when Corning created a ceramic honeycomb structure that became the standard for clean-air technologies in vehicles over the world. And we’ve never stopped improving it.
Over the years, Corning continued to envision cities without the heavy clouds of sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide that had blanketed them for decades. We envisioned a future generation with healthier lungs and stronger hearts.
As a result of that commitment, ceramic substrates and particulate filters from Corning have prevented more than 4 billion tons of hydrocarbons, 4 billion tons of nitrogen oxides, and 40 billion tons of carbon monoxide from entering the atmosphere. It all started with a pressing problem and a long-term approach to solve it.