Chosen Solution
I recently purchased two used display assemblies from Retina iMacs 21.5” (A1418) and 27” (A1419) respectively. The displays both suffered from broken front glass but where otherwise working fine. The glass is glued to the LCD panel over its whole area (not just the edges). Long story short, I successfully removed the broken glass to reuse them as standalone displays. I didn’t use heat, just pried the glass off with credit card, nylon thread and silicone oil. The glass is glued to the panel’s polarizer with a thick adhesive (the complete construction looks like this: glass - thick adhesive - polarizer - another light adhesive - LCD panel - backlight). My question now is: does anyone know the exact name/type of that thick gooey adhesive between glass and polarizer? It feels like it’s silicon-based but that’s just a wild guess because the way it feels like and the fact that silicone oil helped to neutralize its effect. I’m asking because it could help finding easier and more gentle methods of removing broken glass from those displays. It might be the same custom-made substance Apple’s using for iOS-devices but I’m not sure. I know that it smells quite funny and that working it over some hours caused me some dizziness - even though it doesn’t smell like your typical solvent, more a little bit like mold …
Because of the speed of manufacturing needed fast curing glues are used like: Hot glue stick or liquid adhesives as well as UV setting epoxies. Apple also uses foam tape as well as double stick tapes.
