I would readily buy a combo of a Lenovo laptop and Mac OS X. That would be the best of both worlds.
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Apple to Adopt Carbon Fiber for Lighter MacBook Air?
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I would readily buy a combo of a Lenovo laptop and Mac OS X. That would be the best of both worlds.
Just to throw in my opinion as a materials engineer. First of all, it is a misnomer that carbon fiber has poor heat dissipation. Carbon fibers are extremely good thermal conductors, it is the epoxy that results in the poor conductivity. I found no mention of epoxy anywhere in the article, and while it is somewhat of a convention to use carbon fiber-epoxy composites, so it is possible that they may use another material for the matrix, which would result in good heat dissipation (someone already mentioned this I think).
Also, just as a personal prediction, there is no way that Apple would use continuous fibers (the ones that make those cool looking weaves or the unidirectional shininess); they would use short, chopped fiber to save cost. They might however, put a single woven ply on top just for the aesthetics, but I wouldn't expect super stiff, expensive layups (though it will still certainly expensive).
Responding to the question of whether or not it is green when compared to aluminum, aluminum is incredibly inefficient to refine from bauxite, which is the aluminum ore they dig out of the ground. However, it can be recycled indefinitely, just needing to be remelted, at ~700C. I've never heard of companies recycling carbon fiber for third party use (airplane manufacturers may do it, but it's so they themselves can reuse it), so let's assume Apple would have to use new carbon fiber for every part. Aside from the toxic and carcinogenic substances used in the epoxy, which have already been mentioned, the carbon itself has to be heated to anywhere between 2000-3000C to be synthesized, depending on the desired properties. For lower cost carbon fiber like I'd expect them to use, they often sythesize carbon fiber out of tars, which releases greenhouse gases and sulfides in particular, whereas aluminum does not have these biproducts. I'm not exactly sure how Apple's new manufacturing process compares to the energy efficiency of an autoclave for forming composite parts, but I doubt it comes close to making up for the energy difference just in the "extraction" process. Overall, if green is your concern, stay away from carbon fiber.
Edit: I remember what a big thing it was for bicycle frames to break the 1 kilo mark; I wonder if laptop makers will strive for the same thing in the next few years?
Also, just as a personal prediction, there is no way that Apple would use continuous fibers (the ones that make those cool looking weaves or the unidirectional shininess); they would use short, chopped fiber to save cost. They might however, put a single woven ply on top just for the aesthetics, but I wouldn't expect super stiff, expensive layups (though it will still certainly expensive).
Responding to the question of whether or not it is green when compared to aluminum, aluminum is incredibly inefficient to refine from bauxite, which is the aluminum ore they dig out of the ground. However, it can be recycled indefinitely, just needing to be remelted, at ~700C. I've never heard of companies recycling carbon fiber for third party use (airplane manufacturers may do it, but it's so they themselves can reuse it), so let's assume Apple would have to use new carbon fiber for every part. Aside from the toxic and carcinogenic substances used in the epoxy, which have already been mentioned, the carbon itself has to be heated to anywhere between 2000-3000C to be synthesized, depending on the desired properties. For lower cost carbon fiber like I'd expect them to use, they often sythesize carbon fiber out of tars, which releases greenhouse gases and sulfides in particular, whereas aluminum does not have these biproducts. I'm not exactly sure how Apple's new manufacturing process compares to the energy efficiency of an autoclave for forming composite parts, but I doubt it comes close to making up for the energy difference just in the "extraction" process. Overall, if green is your concern, stay away from carbon fiber.
Edit: I remember what a big thing it was for bicycle frames to break the 1 kilo mark; I wonder if laptop makers will strive for the same thing in the next few years?
Someone call me when the Air gets to about 2.2 lbs. and not 2.7
Not that it isn't quite light, but I am awaiting for that LIGHT notebook that does more than a netbook.
When Apple catches up with the Sony design standard then the Air will be perfect. Although, Sony and many other PC makers are far behind in terms of trackpad tech.
Not that it isn't quite light, but I am awaiting for that LIGHT notebook that does more than a netbook.
When Apple catches up with the Sony design standard then the Air will be perfect. Although, Sony and many other PC makers are far behind in terms of trackpad tech.
The MBA is the perfect weight...
Its light enough to be easily portable, yet heavy enough to feel like it is solid and high quality construction... which it is already.
carbon fiber wouldnt help with wifi because the wifi antenna is in that plastic piece between the screen and the body...
Its light enough to be easily portable, yet heavy enough to feel like it is solid and high quality construction... which it is already.
carbon fiber wouldnt help with wifi because the wifi antenna is in that plastic piece between the screen and the body...
i think that the shell could be carbon fiber and they could adonize the metallic look on. that would drop the weight drastically and the air would look pretty much the same!
Of course lighter is better.
I would be surprised if Apple went with a half carbon fiber construction. A complete shell for the MBA would make sense.
With Apple's new green MB & MBP design a MBA made of carbon would be a step away from this.
Interesting to see if this ever comes to fruition.
I would be surprised if Apple went with a half carbon fiber construction. A complete shell for the MBA would make sense.
With Apple's new green MB & MBP design a MBA made of carbon would be a step away from this.
Interesting to see if this ever comes to fruition.
Fascinating. So, given that they're only talking about the bottom cover does this sound likely or just one of many prototypes? How much weight could be potentially saved just by replacing the bottom bit? 100-150g?
I would love a lighter MBP, but I just don't see Apple switching materials this soon especially after their whole new solid aluminum process.
Are you saying the "brick" approach isnt great engineering ??
There's way more to engineering than using tools such as CNC or water jets.
I get that, but from every picture I've seen the Macbook internals look great.
I personally think they did a great job engineering.
Thanks for that edicated post. The "carbon fibre isn't green" argument kind of tells us Apple will not use this in commercial products.
Still, I think that this bottom plate doesn't really need to be that rigid. The unibody is the structural part here. Make one or two screw holders in the middle of the unibody and you can easily support a thin and bendable bottom plate without risking to crush the logic board or the battery.
Apple (or rather Steve Jobs) is obscessed with thinness. The weight factor is negligible; the unibody Macbook Pros are actually a bit heavier than the old ones, but they're thinner.
But I guess it would be tough to make the whole aluminum thing look good with a carbon fiber bottom. I could imagine it with would look okay with carbon fiber on the top and the bottom cover, assuming the display would get the glass bezel revamp.
I think you don't understand the word "engineering". It's not about "looking great" (although it can be within that as a frame).
Based on the looks of the motherboards you're able to tell if the laptop cases is a result of good engineering? Ever owned a TiBook or an MBP? Of course, the TiBook was the worst of the two, but the MB, MBA, and MBP has now morphed into something where the engineering suffer because of those looks you seem to think is "great engineering".
For the love of GOD do it! There is no reason why the Air should be as heavy as it is. It should be called the Macbook Rock.
Shave it down to 1.78 lbs and I will break out my credit card.
Shave it down to 1.78 lbs and I will break out my credit card.
This is typical Apple form-over-function thinking. Apple's aluminum laptops have the absolute worst Wi-Fi reception on the market, and that is precisely because of the aluminum enclosure.
Since the Wi-Fi antennas are housed in the upper chassis, it would actually be better for the upper aluminum chassis to be replaced by carbon fiber instead of the bottom cover. Furthermore, the only benefit of aluminum would be if it was used on the bottom cover, as it could act as a heat sink.
Ideally, the whole enclosure should be carbon fiber. I am disappointed at Apple's increasing degree of it's form-over-function practice.
they should use kevlar; make the macbook air bulletproof and lighter
Why not use Tyvek? Then it won't even need to be placed in an envelope.
While the MBA had a "neat" looking motherboard, it overheated, resulting in core shutdowns. They had to make a hinge from plastic in order to be able to fit the usb-port. The MBAs have had numerous problems with screens and whatnots (no, it's not all down to poor engineering), and until recently, it was a pain in the butt swapping the HDD, because the engineering wasn't up to scratch, to name a few. You won't get a full list, but do a little searching, and you will see plenty of problems with those computers.
The TiBook was the introduction of this sort of thing (to me): Using 99.9999 percent pure "commercial grade" (at least at that time it was "commercial grade") titanium was idiotic. They apparently thought "Ti is stronger than steel per weight, thus it must be at least as rigid". Unfortunately, they decided that a flimsy frame (although made from carbon fibre) would make up for this, but it didn't. Not even close. And when you add the hinges, and the flexing of the screen, not to mention that you could damage the innards without it showing on the outside (pure Ti is rather flexible, but has a fairly good shape memory), you have an engineering disaster which was only added to by Apple painting (yes!) the titanium making it pit, and priming and painting the carbon frame.
Also, there's the tingle sensations people talk about. There are ways around this. But alas, we're talking apple here.
Then, of course, there was the problems with the keyboard touching the screen, top casing with poor fit and - of course - lest we forget: Warping all over the place with numerous models. No, it's not all down to "assembly" - a good industrial engineer should take assembly into consideration when doing his work.
I'll leave you to do further research for yourself. There's quite the difference between engineering something and merely designing it.