Carbon fibre: The remedy for iPhone 5 scuffgate?
In the quest for lighter and larger phones, Apple moved (back) to aluminium for its new iPhone 5. The result is a sleek, featherweight design with one problem: It’s easy to scratch. Whether or not the criticism is fair, complaints are taking on a life of their own among iPhone 5 owners, and the affair has been dubbed “Scuffgate” by the press. Better anodisation may be a solution, but Apple has quietly been working on another option – carbon fibre – for several years now.
As early as 2009, Apple’s carbon fibre guru, Kevin Kenney, filed for a patent on a reinforced phone case that could be a plastic composite stiffened with a carbon-fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) spine. Cyclists may already know Kenney as the former CEO of pioneering carbon-fibre bicycle maker Kestrel. Carbon fibres’ light weight and unusual strength make them a natural stiffener for fast bike frames, as well as camera tripods, race cars, and airplanes. The carbon fibres themselves are three times lighter and four times stronger than steel.
