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An Apple patent application for a metal window treatment process could reveal the secret of the beautiful iPhone 11 Pro finish on the rear window.
The rear window is a subtle and charming feature of the flagship iPhone. It looks more like a metal than a glass – and that may be because the material incorporates the properties …
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In his promotional video for the flagship product (below), Material Vice President Dan Riccio reveals some clues about matte glass, but does not go into details. Here is what he has to say.
Three-dimensional glass back made from the toughest glass of a smartphone. It is carved from a single solid sheet reinforced to the atomic level, then made alive in one of four matte textured finishes.
Obviously Apple suggests that this could use a technology described in an Apple patent application published yesterday.
Today, the US Patent Office has published a patent application from Apple entitled "Thermoplastic Textures Shaping Glass From Glass Molds".
Metallic glass is one of the most difficult forms of glass and it is quite possible that Apple has used the method described in this latest patent application for the iPhone 11 Pro to give it a texture. […]
The invention of Apple covers a thermoplastic forming process for reproducing the fine texture of a silicate glass mold.
This seems to go pretty well for the solidity and the textured finish, with other proof to support it.
The inventors of this invention are responsible for the metal alloys that have been incorporated into the iPhone X and XR. It would seem, therefore, that the new metallic glass would suit their past and present work.
Here is what the patent, originally filed in early 2018, has to say about the process.
A method of forming a thermoplastic of a metallic glass comprising: placing a metal lens on a glass mold having a surface portion having a fine surface texture; heating the glass mold to a processing temperature above the glass transition temperature of the metal glass; apply pressure on the glass mold; and cooling the metal glass to form an article reproducing the fine surface texture of the glass mold portion.
He says the texture itself is incredibly subtle.
The fine surface texture has a surface depth of the order of one micron.
The metal in the material could be one of many options.
The metal glass comprises a material selected from a group consisting of: Al, Zr based, Pd based, Ni based, Fe based, Au based, Au based, based on Pd. metallic glass made from Mo.
Unless performing a molecular analysis of the material used to finish the iPhone 11 Pro, it is unlikely that we will learn if this assumption is correct, but at least it seems plausible.
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