· Apple's latest plastic metal bonding process fills metal pores with reinforced bonding materials to bond plastic parts more firmly to metal surfaces;
· The multi-layer structure composed of plastic, adhesive and metal substrate forms a strong and tightly bonded between the continuous surfaces connected to each other, forming a water-tight structure;
· Apple's enhanced metal-plastic bonding process can make future products more waterproof, strong, and durable.
Recently, the US Patent and Trademark Office (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) officially announced a new patent granted to Apple. The patent is a plastic metal bonding process, specifically, it uses a kind of reinforced bonding material to fill the pores of the metal, and the plastic parts are more firmly bonded to the metal surface. Compared with using only metal, the use of plastic metal bonding components can make the product more durable and waterproof.
Apple's latest plastic metal bonding process patent exposure.
Thermoplastic surface makes the product more waterproof, durable and beautiful
In some portable electronic devices, thermoplastic components can be directly molded on the metal surface to provide better waterproof function for the device and make the product surface more beautiful.
Since the waterproof thermoplastic surface can prevent electronic components from rusting and corrosion resistance, the use of thermoplastic surfaces can be more suitable than some metal surfaces that are easy to rust and corrode.
The process of the Apple plastic metal bonding process is: firstly, a large number of pores are formed on the metal surface, and then the adhesive is applied to the metal surface to partially cure the adhesive, and then a plastic layer is molded on the metal surface, and then the thermoplastic And the adhesive is cured, and finally the material is integrated into the device casing.
In addition, to protect the metal surface and electronic components, a water-tight sealing device is also required between the thermoplastic material layer and the metal casing of the device.
In the above patent figure FIG. 3, a multilayer structure composed of plastic (130), adhesive (310) and metal substrate (120) forms a sufficiently strong and tightly bonded structure between consecutive surfaces connected to each other To form a water-tight structure.
For the housing structure of electronic equipment, the water-sealed structure is very useful, because it can prevent the components inside the housing from getting wet.
In addition to providing waterproof or other liquid penetration resistance, the strong adhesion between the materials can also provide impact resistance for electronic devices to a certain extent. Therefore, Apple's enhanced metal-plastic bonding process can make the product more strong and sturdy.
Although the patent shows that their metal-plastic hybrid manufacturing process can be applied to Apple mobile phones and MacBook computers, due to the wireless charging of mobile phones, Apple currently mainly uses glass materials. Therefore, if Apple chooses to use this process, the most likely benefit is the MacBook computer.