Comments on: Carbon Fiber Mackbook Air Rumors Debunked?

By: Chris Q.

Chris Q. — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 19:04:35 +0000

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.

By: PS

PS — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:20:17 +0000

by the way… Apple’s Macbook Air doesn’t have a user replaceable battery.

By: HARRO

HARRO — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:15:00 +0000

@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?

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:37:57 +0000

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

By: Stu

Stu — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:17:13 +0000

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.

By: feelslikeplastic

feelslikeplastic — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 03:50:42 +0000

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

By: 123

123 — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:58:07 +0000

Marketing ploy? DEFINITELY!

By: MorrisBrown

MorrisBrown — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:55:22 +0000

I think people just like the fancy name… “ooooo… Carbon Fiber”

By: yyy

yyy — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:48:56 +0000

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/

By: ILuvOS9

ILuvOS9 — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 02:40:40 +0000

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 ?!!?!?!