A December, 2006 patent submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office offers a view of what Apple may have in mind for its future notebooks.
While the trend has historically been to make laptops lighter, companies know this is a trade off in terms of durability.
“Unfortunately, increased weight may lead to user dissatisfaction, and bowing may damage the internal parts of the portable computer,” the company wrote in the filing, as covered on AppleInsider.
Additionally, an increased need to electromagnetic shielding has also made designs that much bulkier. In the patent, Apple proposes the idea of an enclosure using at least two uniqe parts to form a single composite structure held together with structural glue as well as the idea of a two-part enclosure being electrically bonded together to form a conductive surface that would both shield the device as well as allow electricity to pass through it. This technique, if viable, would allow manufacturers to build small enclosures around tightly spaced sets of components as opposed to using pre-formed casings or heavy fasteners to perform the same task.
According to an example given within the patent, the glue used to join two components could shift between two states; a liquid state to create a bond and a solid state to hold the structure together. This would allow for multiple parts to be placed in desired positions throughout the device.
For the aforementioned electrical bond, the patent describes a system in which a conductive bridge is electrically bonded to a segment of the conductive layer and to a portion of the laptop’s top plate. The conductive bridge would act as a singular electrical structure and allow current to pass through it while acting as a shield.
The patent is currently credited to Michael Kriege, Dan Hong, John DiFonzo, Stephen Zadesky, David Lynch, David Lundgren, and Nick Merz.
A December, 2006 patent submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office offers a view of what Apple may have in mind for its future notebooks.
While the trend has historically been to make laptops lighter, companies know this is a trade off in terms of durability.
“Unfortunately, increased weight may lead to user dissatisfaction, and bowing may damage the internal parts of the portable computer,” the company wrote in the filing, as covered on AppleInsider.
Additionally, an increased need to electromagnetic shielding has also made designs that much bulkier. In the patent, Apple proposes the idea of an enclosure using at least two uniqe parts to form a single composite structure held together with structural glue as well as the idea of a two-part enclosure being electrically bonded together to form a conductive surface that would both shield the device as well as allow electricity to pass through it. This technique, if viable, would allow manufacturers to build small enclosures around tightly spaced sets of components as opposed to using pre-formed casings or heavy fasteners to perform the same task.
According to an example given within the patent, the glue used to join two components could shift between two states; a liquid state to create a bond and a solid state to hold the structure together. This would allow for multiple parts to be placed in desired positions throughout the device.
For the aforementioned electrical bond, the patent describes a system in which a conductive bridge is electrically bonded to a segment of the conductive layer and to a portion of the laptop’s top plate. The conductive bridge would act as a singular electrical structure and allow current to pass through it while acting as a shield.
The patent is currently credited to Michael Kriege, Dan Hong, John DiFonzo, Stephen Zadesky, David Lynch, David Lundgren, and Nick Merz.