Apple could one day use carbon fiber technology to strengthen its MacBook Pro displays, using the inserts to minimize damage to the screen from flexing the notebook’s top section, without adding any significant weight to the portable device, while also making it extremely thin.
Given its nature of being designed for portability, notebooks like the MacBook Pro trade strength for light weight, sometimes resulting in a reduction of strength.
One of the main casualties of this tradeoff are displays, which can be subjected to torsion effects from twists of the display lid, which is usually kept as the thinnest section of the notebook’s body, and so contains the least material. Over time, the twisting of the lid could weaken the display itself, causing it to crack.
In a patent granted to Apple by the U.S. Patent and Trademark office on Tuesday entitled “Electronic devices with thin display housings,” it’s suggested that Apple could use carbon fibers to enhance the lid of the display.
The patent highlights the use of a housing with a planar housing wall portion that uses a “carbon fiber composite material,” possibly as part of a woven fabric which includes a polymer binder. The carbon fibers are said to run through the panel at such angles that it is not parallel to either the vertical or horizontal edges, minimizing the possibility of offering a convenient point for folding or creasing.
Such a stack of layers, with protective layer at the top, followed by a polarizer layer, OLED panel, substrate, housing wall, and rear cover, would allow for additional strength for the overall unit.
The combination of layers could make for extremely thin display panels that would be far thinner than those that are currently offered. It’s suggested that the final housing and display could have a combined thickness of “less than 2mm,” allowing for one of the thinnest displays on the market should it go into production.
While Apple routinely files numerous patents and applications on a weekly basis, the pursuit of ever-thinner devices seems to be of particular interest for the company’s research and development teams.
It’s also worth remembering that the PowerBook G4 used a combination of a carbon fiber frame and a titanium wrap to make it as light as possible.
Only time will tell what happens with this, so stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and the United States Patent and Trademark Office