Extremely light iPads or Apple Mac notebooks could be a thing of the future after Apple filed a patent for “a housing for an electronic device or other object formed from a fibre-in-matrix material”.
Apple claims that it wants to use a layered fibre in matrix material as a device’s skin or spine and sees carbon fibre-reinforced polymer (CFRP) as the solution.
“The CFRP could be used on both the spine and the casing, and applied in layers – with the grain running in alternate directions – to create a case that is both light and tough the application to the US patents office claims.
The application which includes drawings that look like an iPad illustration goes on to claim that “In some embodiments, the spine may be rectangular. The skin may be formed from multiple layers of CFRP type material stacked atop each other,” reads the application.
“Each layer may be cut at one or more corners to expose at least a portion of the layer beneath. The skin may thus have an overall cross shape, such that each arm of the cross may be wrapped around a different side of the aforementioned rectangular spine.”
Because the device housing will be consistent, it will also be subject to the same levels of thermal expansion, meaning that it will result in a device that is unlikely to crack, according to the patent filing, and create a better fit between parts.
“By virtue of the similar materials used to form the frame and skin, the two components may robustly bond to one another and have similar, if not identical, coefficients of thermal expansion,” it reads. It added, “The combination of the robust bond and similar thermal expansion coefficient may permit the embodiment to resist cracking that could plague other housings.”
Current model iPads are quite heavy due to the aluminium back.
