It would take too much to be bulletproof, but fire resistant ...
It's (apparently) the second heaviest part on the machine, comprising of 19% of the total Macbook Air's weight.
that was titanium.Unibody structure, check.
carbon fiber, check.
That sounds like building a car.
BTW, I remember Apple used carbon fiber on the original PowerBook G4.
If that is so then it weight 0.7 lb, so to reduce it by 0.5 lb the carbon fibre would need to be 75% lighter than aluminium.
It will no doubt have vastly superior Wi-Fi reception...
(my lowly 400 Mhz Pismo's reception still kicks the snot out of the latest MBP, Air, ect)
Edit: just realized the cover (where the antenna resides) will remain aluminum.
Please disregard. ;-)
Carbon fiber is described as an extremely lightweight material that is exceptionally strong.
If that is so then it weight 0.7 lb, so to reduce it by 0.5 lb the carbon fibre would need to be 75% lighter than aluminium.
that was titanium.
For the weight savings, carbon fiber doesn't necessarily have to be 75% lighter. The part could be 75% percent lighter, because carbon fiber is stronger than aluminum: therefore Apple can use less of a lighter material in the same design. I wish all Apples products would shift from aluminum to carbon fiber. Yumm![]()
oh, that's how it's described, is it?
*rollseyes*
it's also incredibly expensive to manufacture, not to mention easily damaged. "Strong" does not always mean "resilient" Carbon fiber is effectively used to replace heavy steel sheetmetal on cars because it can be very thin with layers of protective clearcoat to keep it from fraying/tearing/etc. It is not, when uncoated, particularly good at dealing with abrasive situations.
It doesn't conduct heat very well at all. It is not rigid at all.
It is not going to have anything to do with the outside of a macbook ANYTHING until they can make it in sheets for roughly the same cost per weight at aluminum...and that's not any time soon, kiddos. Maybe never. Unless we run out of aluminum.
i imagine that a carbon fiber model would dramatically increase production time in terms if
1) laying up the carbon fiber
2) letting it cure
they should stick to aluminum imo