Can I separate the glass from the LCD screen?

The iPhone 4 Front Glass Digitizer and LCD is manufactured as one unit. Apple has used epoxy strength adhesive to adhere the LCD to the digitizer. This design change was made to completely solve the issue with dust and derby accumulating between the glass digitizer and the LCD. Their is no way to remove the glass digitizer from the LCD without causing damage and grief, period.

**Beware many internet sites and companies will try and sell you a cheap quick fix. Their is no cheap solution at the moment, you will have to purchase the glass digitizer and LCD as one unit assembled.

Hello friends.

As nice as it is to have a community of like minded fellows all adding input, unfortunately the advice seen here is from people without any real personal experience.

My shop provides an interesting niche service to repair professionals around the USA.

We do in fact rebuild these so called "impossible to separate" assemblies.

I am giving this advice freely as a professional who performs this task numerous times every single day, not as a novice tech who dabbles in phone repairs.

There are two ways to properly perform this task on any OEM adhered lcd assembly. One way is very costly to setup and the other is not but it is slightly more time consuming.

I will not go into the expensive setup we have here that would cost you thousands of dollars, because on your level it is unrealistic. The good news is that you can separate the layers YOURSELF using nothing more complex than a simple hair dryer and some odd and end trinkets.

Following these steps you will have a reconditioned lcd assembly in under 30 minutes using common household items and a few you will need to hit the harware store to obtain.

Materials:

Hot Plate Or Griddle

Hair Dryer

One Deck Of PLASTIC COATED Playing Cards

One Roll Molybendum Alloy Wire

Safe Scrape Plastic Razor Blades

50 ML Tube Of UV LOCA (Ultra-Violate Curable Liquid Optically Clear Adhesive)

LOCA lcd mold designed for the lcd being repaired.

Isopropyl Alcohol (90% or better)

UV Nail Dryer

Infrared Thermometer

Do not listen to what was said earlier about using no heat. In order to properly loosen the adhesiv you NEED 100 degrees F (77 C) or you run the risk of destroying the polarizer layer.

Preparation:

Preheat your griddle to 100 degrees Fahrenheit or 77 Celsius.

Once preheated place the screen assembly FACE DOWN on the griddle.

Set the thermometer somewhere handy and point it at the BACK of the lcd layer.

while the lcd is coming to temp (100/77), prepare about 2 feet of Molybdenum alloy wire.

your screen should come to temperature in about one minute depending on ambient temperatures in the room at the time.

Its Time To Make That Magic Happen!

While wearing leather gloves, wrap the ends of the wire around your index fingers on each hand enough times to give you a very sturdy grip. Keeping the assembly face down on the griddle apply slight pressure on the lcd with your thumbs while you gently work the wire between the glass and the digitizer/polarizer layers. You only want to get the wire in a few millimeters, just enough to get your playing card in behind it.

Still with me? GREAT!

Take off the gloves, leave the wire in the glass and slide a playing card in right behind the wire. Make sure the card spans the ENTIRE width of the lcd and protrudes from both edges, left and right.

Turn off the griddle and using one glove gently but steadily pull the wire out from one side of the assembly.

You are now 5 minutes into the removal and are almost in the home stretch! Here comes the "hard" part.

Have someone hold the hair dryer for you and point it at the glass, to the very bottom edge of the card. Moving together, slowly but steadily work the card down between the layers, separating the glue. Do not bend the card towards the lcd at this point or you may shatter it. Continue moving the card through as your friend follows the edge of the card down with the hair dryer. You will more than likely need to throw away the card and use another 3-4 times to get all the way through as the card will get mangled and lose its edge, becoming ineffective.

In ten or so minutes you should be all the way through! if so congratulations you are in the home stretch and the hardest parts are over.

You will notice that your lcd is free of all the glass but is also covered in gooey gum. Much of this can be removed by simply grabbing some tightly and peeling it back with your fingers. If you run into any stubborn gum use the safe scrap plastic razors to remove it. Do not use any solvents to remove the gum unless you are proficient with a soldering iron and do not mind re applying the back light layer on the rear of the lcd.

Got it all off? GREAT! This next section is CRUCIAL to pay attention to unless you want air bubbles in the layers so please read many times before you start the process, because once you lay the glass down you can NEVER lift it back up again without trapping air.

Place your lcd face up in the LOCA mold. Apply a line of LOCA straight down the middle of the lcd from top to bottom. Excess will not hurt but it is messy, however you are better off using too much adhesive than not enough. Once the LOCA is applied, place ONLY the bottom edge of the glass into the mold but hold the top edge up and do not allow the glass to contact the glue yet. VERY SLOWLY begin to lower the top edge down to the lcd. ONLY move as fast as it takes for the glue to make it all the way to the left and right edges, it will like watching a horizon of glue rise to the top and outward to the sides.

Once it is layed down and you are happy with the placement, put the entire LOCA mold, lcd and glass, into the UV nail dryer for 3-5 minutes.

Congratulation, you have rebuilt your lcd assembly. In our shop we often do have to perform this task in a similar fashion as the machines we use do not work when the glass is completely shattered, so this advice is based on my personal experience from owning one of only 3 facilities in the United States that is capable of this on a large scale.

I recommend trying on a cheap screen like the iphone 4 a few times prior to attempting say, an iPhone 5c or Galaxy S4 for obvious reasons.

Keep in mind that iPhone screens are so inexpensive comparatively speaking that there are probably many things you could be doing with your time other than attempting this. But if you are like me, and it always bothers you when someone tells you something cant be done, then enjoy. Remember, patience is the key. Frustration, shaky hands, being irritated or distracted often leads to a shattered lcd. If you are having trouble put it down and take a break for 5 minutes.

Best of luck everybody!

quick edit: I forgot about the Alcohol! using a q-tip NOT dripping in isopropyl alcohol gently clean excess glue form underneath your new glass. Unlike solvents, this only removes uncured LOCA and will not effect the bond you created. Be careful to use as little as possible or you may need to solder a new back light layer on the lcd, as even alcohol is not pure and contains some water which will stain the otherwise immaculate back light layer, giving you that bad whiteout splotchy look.

The answer should be NO of course we can always try to heat things up and break the bond of the adhesive etc, but ultimately that would involve more luck than skill and is in my opinion not a good repair. Just my 2 cents

No, it's glued to the display. The Glass+LCD+Digitizer are all one unit.

I was also very curious about the possibility of getting this task done. So I got a good deal on ebay. 10 working lcds with cracked screens for 20.00. My first mistake was to try to remove the lcd without the black layer described above. It comes off easily, it tooke me a couple of minutes and with no cracks but that black layer is part of the lcd. Just when you buy a 3GS lcd and it has that black plastic on the front part. There is some liquid between the lcd and the black film. After that the lcd would light up but all I could see was a white screen. I thought I had broken it somehow and tried again. Again the same problem.

My third try was to peel the glass off. All that time I had my own iphone with the back removed to test the lcds. I started peeling off the glass and what a painful process. Each 10 minutes or so I would test it again to make sure it was still working and after about 30 minutes even though I was really careful the bottom showed some cracks.

I still have 7 more to play with but my conclusion is: it might be possible to peel the glass off but it is not worth it. Nowadays the complete assembly goes for $30.00 on ebay and even if someone is able to get the task done, it is just too much time consuming. Not worth it at all.

Well, after reading all the posts, and also ordering the full glass and digitizer replacement, I decided to go ahead and give this a go as I already did a tear down on my iPhone4 and had the replacement part on the way. I took some hints and tips from almost everyone who's posted. The short of it is I was able to get all the glass off the digitizer in about 15 minutes. I used a product called Un-Du to loosen up the epoxy. This is a fantastic product for removing stickers/glue/labels/tape etc. and I use this stuff all the time on other projects. Now my screen was very badly cracked so the solution could work its way through the broken glass. Un-Du dries fairly quickly and is very safe on electronics. I then used the heat gun/blow dryer on low for a few minutes, after which I did another application of Un-Du. Let it sit for a minute or two to dry and applied a little more heat again. Then once again another application of Un-Du. Then I took a straight razor and began to slide underneath the glass and it scraped off fairly easy from here. The gotchas are the larger pieces of broken glass. Just use more solution and work the razor. Be careful around the edges of the screen working the razor underneath the glass towards the center. All this being said, I sit here with my screen clear of glass but I've not tested it yet. So, maybe this will help someone out there. If it works I'll post an update.

i dont even know why people would bother, with the price of parts where they are buying them. just buy the complete unit & do the job a whole lot quicker with less risk.

WHO REALY CARES IF SOMEONE TOOK 2 OR 3 HOURS TO SEPARATE THE LCD. you add the tear down & rebuild time to that makes 4 hours.

just get the complete unit . do the job. half to 1.5 hours.

I know which i prefer.

I'd like to hear more about that too. Thus far, I have only found one person who has attempted something similar. A gentleman managed to chip away the glass digitizer from a 1st-generation iPhone, which also has the glass glued to the LCD panel. He said it took over 3 hours, but he managed to get it done by cracking and chipping away the glass piece by piece.

Hi all,

to let u know that ive replace almost 10pcs iphone 4 screen complete set ofcurse, so i have some broken digitizer but fone lcd attached.then ive tried to use a very sharp blade and seperate the lcd from digitizer. it was like piece of cake and lcd come out with no crack.

but.....

there is a black/dark layer on iphone 4 lcd that one still is attached to broken screen and my lcd is just naked.and the dark layer is very tough and noway to separate even now im using any tools to see how get it work.

so im agreed with ifix, dont think its possible to separate the lcd from glass,bu sure u can but both separately and glue them together if u wish.

I've tried and it shouldnt be done. You should try to replace the complete front assembly with the LCD included. I emailed this company about just replacing the glass and digitizer and they said its not recommended, only for professionals with the right tools. http://iphone4parts.com/shop/iphone-glas...

They said they mostly sell the digitizer alone to manufacturers to be assembled. Save yourself time and trouble and just replace the complete front screen with digitizer and LCD all in one piece.

Just changed the complete unit and tried to separate the broken glass from the old digitizer and LCD. Silicone remover seemed to be a usable choice. After a good beginning, probably with too less care and too much solvent, first the digitizer started cracking, because it is much thinner than the protection glass, shortly after this the LCD decomposed into all its layers. I would say it is not impossible to separate glass, digitizer and LCD, but as long as there is no simple and safe method, it isn't worth the effort.

Next time (hopefully never) I probably will install a separate LCD without glueing.

One more point: It took me a long time to remove all the very small chips of broken glass from the adhesive strips on the frame above and below the display area. It would be good to have them as replacement parts.

@Dustin Jones,

You, your company and your employess are scam artists. I am saying this here so that hopefully the moderators of this respectable website remove any and all traces of your advertisements before more companies fall for your scam.

People, Dustin is merely a middleman who buys your lcds and resells them to facilities like my own, only he sends them out to a place in china. Unfortunately they LOVE to lose your shipments, leave you hanging and worse. Before i opened my facility i fell for it, and it cost me more money than i care to admit. When i became keen to how they alter figures i sent a test shipment to him that contained 100% perfect working lcds, of which his employees reported over 20 out of 100 were non functional. I told him to return the so called non functional lcds, and the lcds he sent back were in fact not ones i ever sent him. As part of the controlled experiment to validate my suspicions, every lcd assembly sent in that shipment was marked with invisible ink in at least 4 location per assembly. None that were returned had any trace of the control marks we left on them. This means Dustin lies about test results to pad his profits, and sends back known bad assemblies while keeping your good ones, and keeping your money.

We was able to separate the glass from LCD but it took us almost 2 hours of very complicated work, not worth spending that much time.

I cracked my iphone 4 glass, but the phone still works. One of the cracks ran right through my front-facing camera. About a month later, I decided to pick the shards off of the face where the camera is, and I was able to do so with ease. I'm wondering if I can pluck the rest of this glass off and replace it with a $30 glass display instead of blowing $150 on a new glass+LCD panel. If I do this, I will record it. I might be the first to pull this off and document it. For now, I have started a blog page to talk about the frequency of broken iPhone 4 glass displays. Check it out at http://carltonzone.com/blog/cracked-your...

When I broke my 3GS, you had to use a heat gun just to loosen the glue at the top and bottom of the digitizer screen. This was not easy at all, and was a frustrating process. You either don't heat it up enough, or you can over do it and warp the parts. I watched a video of a guy in Europe who took a first generation iPhone and a sharp knife, and he cracked and scraped the broken glass digitizer from the LCD without damaging the LCD. I still think this is possible, because at the top of my iPhone 4, where the front-facing camera is, I was able to pluck off at least 1/2" of the top strip of glass with relative ease. My question is, will it be as easy to pluck the glass off of the digitizer? If the glue is as weak as it is on the top part of the phone above the display, this should not be hard to do! Has anyone else tried this, and if so, can you confirm that the strength of the glue is the same on the LCD as it is on the top 1/2" of the phone?

Mostafa, thank you for sharing that! I have not heard any reports from someone separating the LCD and digitizer that gave this level of detail. Someone reported on another site this week that they successfully removed the glass without breaking the LCD, but the point you are making here is significant. If the dark layer on the LCD doesn't come off and is not on the replacement, that would definitely be a problem. I wonder if some suppliers are selling the LCDs with this dark layer attached already?

IF you buy replacement glass on, make sure to get the adhesive strips also - they are sold separately and you need them to attach your new screen.

There is actually a way to separate the newer bonded LCD's like the

iPhone 4

iPhone 5

Samsung S3

Samsung Note 2

etc..

Here is a video of separation iPhone 4 LCD / Glass from start to finish.

http://youtu.be/NrMGPrMllsM

I've done this with a ipod touch 5th gen, the complete screen and lcd is around $200, while the glass only was $10....

Using a hair dryer and a flathead screwdriver to slowly work the glass away from the screen. I kept the screen attached and the ipod on, so I could see if I was applying to much pressure to the LCD. You just have to make sure to repeatedly heat it to keep the glue soft.

After the glass was all off, I used goo-gone and a razor blade to get rid of the adhesive.

But unless the glass s broken, I doubt this would be possible without damaging the LCD.

P*ss easy done and dusted in an hour! Jaydee got this one!

http://www.dhgate.com/product/factory-su...|988459145 , friend, you can separate glass from digitizer, pls chech this link ! this machine is professional to separate glass!

holy crap i am in no way gonna attempt this repair on my lg g3. sounds like it can be a real gnarly pi the a!!!!!

Note: This is a very non professional way but easier and much more simple so don't start ranting about it. Do this at your OWN risk as it may lead to damaging the device.

Yes it is possible but there is a easier way to do it except it may be pricey depending on your device.

What i would do is i would buy the whole assembly to be sure there aren't any artifacts left on the display from high pressure. I have repaired an iPhone 4S and it was very easy.

Without an LCD separation machine it might be slightly difficult.

And one more thing. If the display is jutting out DONT push it back in as it will make the repair much easier if you leave it alone. Why i say this is because you wont need a hair dryer or a heatgun just simply take your spudger tool and go along the edges of the display and pop the clips and bam your in! Then once your in disconnect the display assembly cable and take off the old display and put the new one in and plug the display back into the same place it was in. Then once its in re-clip it in and turn on the device and your done.

I wouldn't worry about the re applying of the epoxy as i haven't had any issues with my devices. As i said it is a very non professional way so i wouldn't use this for your business or anything, just for personal use.

Sincerely Alburt Einstine

I found out a pretty simple method that worked on my iPod touch 4g, however it requires more breaking than fixing.

It started out as an accident as I dropped my iPod in the street and the screen was severely cracked. Later I had decided I wanted to replace the screen and I had no idea how i was to go about this until i noticed small shards of glass were peeling off. So i had peeled of every shard of glass and then BAM! No screen, just LCD and camera. I bought a new screen cleaned the LCD off to rid of dust or dirt and it worked like new.

Hope this helps,

Dawgie

P.S. If your screen isn't badly damaged, break it more

YES IT IS POSSIBLE!! i did this on a very well shattered glass screen.

Follow these steps:

1. DO NOT HEAT

2. slide sharp blade between glass and adhesive (this way you will not damage LCD)

- start at bottom by home button. Work your way up and to the sides (doing it this way prevents LCD cracking)

3. It will look like it bubbles a little. this is good!!

4. Go very slowly (remember, the more shattered the better)

- i would recommend wearing goggles, long sleeve shirt and gloves. Glass splinters and goes everywhere when doing this.

5. Once you have taken all the glass off the screen use acetone to dissolve adhesive. Use a blunt non-metal object to remove adhesive. Those plastic repair tools work quite well.

Good luck!!

You can separate it by taking apart the screws that hold the LCD to the glass. Then you can just easily slide it off (the LCD) and TA-DA there you go, its separated i have a business doing this so I have a LOT of experience:)!

Tip: Don't forget to do this VERY CAREFULLY and as gentle as you can because you may break the LCD if you don't

Have a great day and i hope your iPhone works!