Patents are always a nice peek into Apple’s kitchen. This time we look at how the company is working on a deep black coating for its laptops, among other things.
It could just be that we will see deep black MacBooks in the future. Apple is working on a special coating that would remove all light reflection from the surface. Must look cool, such a black MacBook ????
A patent filed with the United States Patent & Trademark Office indicates that Apple is experimenting with a technique to achieve a matte black surface finish on an anodized metal surface. The people of Patently Apple discovered it patent entitled “Anodized part with a matte black appearance”.
The patent is about imparting light-absorbing properties to the surface of an anodized part (or housing) that can absorb all the light that falls on the surface to give a black appearance. And because of the language used in the patent description, we are probably talking about a portable electronic device that uses a housing and has internal components that dissipate heat.
Apple states in the patent that conventional industrial techniques used by consumer electronics manufacturers have failed to achieve true black. The best they could get was a dark gray shade.
When talking about such a method using a ‘housing for a portable electronic device’, the patent mentions’ forming an anodized layer covering a metal substrate, introducing color particles into the pores of the anodized layer and forming light absorbing characteristics on an external surface of the anodized layer by etching the external surface. ” Sounds interesting, but what does that mean and what would be the benefit?
An advantage could be that on a light-absorbing surface hardly any scratches or imperfections will be visible, which is ideal for utensils such as a laptop or iPhone. But there’s more.
More than just ‘eye candy’
Providing a matte black tint to, for example, a MacBook is not only eye candy. It also has some functional advantages. Some of those advantages are that it would prevent light from being reflected off the camera, and use the heat-absorbing properties of the matte black surface for thermal management and to cool the device from the inside out.
When a black housing absorbs light, the housing can convert the light into heat. When the techniques described for coloring an anodized layer yield a true black housing, it will absorb a greater amount of energy and promote cooling from the inside.
In the example, the portable computer case (108) can function as a heat sink, such as a heatsink, which is colored black, to efficiently absorb and dissipate heat generated by the internal components, such as the battery, processor, etc.
For example, on a smartphone (102) it may be beneficial if the camera body has a light-absorbing black surface. This will avoid reflections of visible light that could otherwise affect the camera’s sensor.
As mentioned above, a matte black finish on an anodized case can provide some functional benefits in a variety of applications, on both smartphones and laptops. But this is a patent. That means it doesn’t necessarily have to be widely used for a consumer device like a MacBook or an iPhone, if at all.
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