At 1:00 a.m. Beijing time on September 8, Apple's fall launch officially began, in which the outside world is most concerned about the iPhone 14 series of new cell phones, iPhone 14 starting at 5,999 yuan, and the most expensive "emperor" version of the 1TB iPhone 14 Pro Max, priced at 13,499 yuan. It is the most expensive Apple phone ever. Apple phones have generated such widespread buzz, do you know what special materials are used to make their bezels?
Regular iPhone: aircraft grade aluminum metal
The regular version of the iPhone bezel uses aircraft-grade aluminum metal, which has several significant advantages.
Good heat dissipation: The thermal conductivity of the metal is unmatched by other materials. The thermal conductivity of aircraft aluminum alloy is more excellent compared to stainless steel.
Good weight reduction: It is a lightweight and high quality material.
Excellent texture and good grip: lightweight, and easy to shape, low processing costs, the surface can do a variety of treatments to make it more corrosion-resistant, wear-resistant, easy to clean, beautiful and generous. For example, anodic oxidation (coloring), electrostatic spraying, electrophoresis, brushing, sand surface treatment, etc.
In aircraft and aerospace vehicle manufacturing, large size aluminum alloy materials are often used to CNC milling and machining of integral aluminum alloy structural parts, replacing the traditional combined structural parts made of multiple aluminum alloy loose parts, which not only make the structural parts significantly reduce weight and improve service process reliability, but also reduce the aircraft assembly process and manufacturing cost. This advanced design and manufacturing method puts forward very demanding requirements on aluminum alloy materials: the maximum thickness of aluminum alloy forgings or pre-drawn plates often needs to reach 150mm or more, and the comprehensive performance of different thickness parts is highly uniform, and at the same time, it also needs to have excellent strength - plasticity - fracture toughness - fatigue resistance - stress corrosion resistance and spalling corrosion performance matching.
iPhone Pro: surgical grade stainless steel
Surgical grade stainless steel is an informal name that actually refers to some stainless steel that can be used for biological and human life or treatment. Surgical grade stainless steel is easy to work with, corrosion resistant, and has high strength and durability, making it ideal for surgical equipment and implants. The more common type is 316 austenitic stainless steel.
Apple has filed many patents related to titanium cases, and in 2021 there were rumors that the iPhone 14 would feature titanium bezels instead of aluminum and stainless steel. Titanium is much harder, however, the high strength also makes it difficult to etch. As a result, Apple has developed a sandblasting, etching and chemical process that can give the titanium case a high-gloss finish. Apple has also been investigating the use of a thin oxide surface coating to deal with the problem of fingerprint staining.
Post time: Sep-20-2022
