Apple may be developing a way to bond plastic and metal

[dgstorm]

Now that the new iPad release is behind us, Apple is looking to the future iPhone 5 and other devices. What will they come packed with? What amazing technology will they bring? A new patent seems to reveal a glimmer of their future plans.

Apple might be developing a process of bonding plastic and metal parts in order to build more solid portable devices like the iPhone and iPad. The patent in question is called “Ultrasonic Bonding of Discrete Plastic Parts to Metal” and describes the process in which a piece of plastic is melted upon a metallic surface thus fusing them together.

"Any desire to substitute metal parts in for plastic parts in a design where welding is the mode of attachment has been traditionally impossible. This serves to limit the abilities of designers with respect to the materials that can be used in a particular design, such as for the housing and internal features or parts of an electronic device having complex internal features."

The idea Apple is trying to work with is using the metal surface to create a surface to better bond the plastic materials. The new technology could be used in a series of external metal parts and internal plastic parts, increasing the flexibility and durability of the product tremendously. The new technique could be applied to the production process as well.

The technology behind the application was devised by Christopher David Prest and Douglas Weber. The patent was filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on September 2011.

By Radu

Source: Apple wants to improve bonding of plastic and metal in building new iPhones