Carbon fiber sounds good in theory, but an in depth analysis leads industry veterans and product designers to believe it is the wrong material for a laptop shell.
From AppleInsider: “The high strength-to-weight ratio of carbon fiber has made it a popular choice for the aerospace, sporting, and racing industries, where it’s used for aircraft parts, bicycle frames, and performance car bodies. More recently, however, its application has spilled into the computing industry, with vendors such as Sony and HP’s Voodoo PC brand all using it to construct lightweight notebook enclosures.”
As an engineer who designs carbon fiber parts, I know it’s an amazing material, but it has its limitations. Ultra light and strong organically shaped structures: Yes! Small intricate parts: No. Laptops from Sony and VooDoo claim to be made from carbon fiber, but it’s not the woven type you see on a Formula 1 car. Its merely injection molded plastic with tiny little pieces of carbon fiber in it. One could call it a marketing ploy.
Why aluminum beats carbon fiber in Apple’s notebooks:
- Anodized aluminum is many times harder than carbon fiber in epoxy, thus very scratch resistant.
- You can easily tap screw holes into aluminum, not into carbon fiber.
- CNC machined aluminum has tolerances down to a few microns, carbon fiber is much less exact.
- Aluminum can be cast, milled and forged into almost any geometry. Carbon fiber cloth is limited by the geometries it can fit around and there can be no sharp corners.
- Carbon fiber cloth must be laid up by hand before curing – aluminum cutting and forming is automated.
- Aluminum is easily recyclable, carbon fiber less so.
A couple of years back, Mac enthusiasts were introduced to a carbon fiber-like sticker that could be skinned on a MacBook giving it the appearance of being made from the material. Unfortunately, it was merely an attempt at making your MacBook look cool, when in actuality there was no difference at all. So could the supposed carbon fiber material that has been rumored to grace the MacBook Air resemble this? Don’t count on it.
10 Comments to “Carbon Fiber Mackbook Air Rumors Debunked?”
if this had come from anyone but an industrial hardware designer, I would’ve written it off. but when you lay out the points in terms of aluminum being better… what you’re saying makes sense.
why would they switch metals? I don’t get it. they just made an entirely huge deal about using aluminum ?!!?!?!
Reply
What small components would they need to manufacture out of Carbon fiber if they’re just making the “bottom” cover out of it?
@ILuvOS9: I still don’t get why they would switch to new metal right after that 15 minute Jonny Ive video.
see here –> http://www.apple.com/macbook/the-new-macbook/
Reply
I think people just like the fancy name… “ooooo… Carbon Fiber”
Reply
Marketing ploy? DEFINITELY!
Reply
I own the sony vaio tx series, the one that “claims” to use carbon fiber. it doesn’t really. it feels like plastic. if you guys were smart… you would be praying this DOES NOT happen.
by the way, link to the machine i’m talking about is here: http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/334/C4745/
though I’m sure you have seen it already
Reply
You could make a case for super cheap using stamped carbon fiber/PPS. I’d never bother with a thermoset and Mac probably wouldn’t either because they’d lose the ‘recyclable’ claim. At least with a good thermoplastic you can grind it up re-use the material for particulate carbon reinforced injection molding. The shell of the case is a very simple shallow cavity which is perfect for thermoforming or stamping carbon reinforced thermoplastic. I know of a lot of places making far more complex parts from carbon reinforced theroplastic and the cost for the parts are super low using that process because cycle times are in the order of 2-3 minutes, you can stamp a bunch at a time so your individual part cycle time can be reduced to 20-30 seconds and there is next to no labour involved. Plus energy usage is much less than milling aluminum. Stamp a bunch of parts on a single sheet and shuttle it to a 3 axis NC router and you’re done.
Reply
Hey Casey –
Dan here from HP’s Voodoo team. Agree that carbon fiber can be a tricky material to work with, but I wanted to clarify a couple key points.
For the Voodoo Envy, we actually found a way to construct the chassis from true carbon fiber (yes, the actual woven type seen on a formula 1 car.) We took carbon fiber and glass fiber weave sheets hand-layered and formed in a fiberglass resin mold. Carbon fiber weaves come in different shapes, colors and sizes; we opted to go with a more subtle micro-sized weave that had less contrast between fiber strands, as it draws far less attention to the carbon fiber texture and allows the emphasis to lay in the square forms and subtle design features of the Envy. Additionally, the top layer is a resin coat from the mold that protects the fiber layers, and allows us to customize efficiently and paint the many colors we offer in our Voodoo color palette.
Without carbon fiber, we wouldn’t have been able to offer a replaceable battery while retaining the rigidity needed for the .70 inch thin chassis. Hopefully this helps clarify a few details!
Dan
Reply
by the way… Apple’s Macbook Air doesn’t have a user replaceable battery.
Reply
@Dan from Voodoo: So what are you saying? Are you saying that Carbon Fiber would be a reasonable choice for Apple’s next iteration of the Macbook Air bottom? Even though all of these points (anti-recyclable,etc.,) have been stated? You guys think CF would be suitable?
Reply
Re: Carbon fiber cloth must be laid up by hand …
There are some limitations with carbon fiber that have been overcome. Fiberforge has built a machine that will lay down multiple layers of carbon fiber strands (not woven which weakens the strands by bending them) into a flat “blank” part which can be heated and pressed into a final shape.
Reply