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Uni-Body Design

C

Chaos123x

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jul 8, 2008
1,698
34
Does anybody think the way they make the Unibody design is a bit excessive?

I mean carving a block of metal with robot controlled drills and Laser etechers :eek:

Sounds far out.


Can't they just melt the metal into a mold?

Can they cold press the metal like how they stamp out soda cans and coins?

Just never seen metal has element you really had to carve.


Why would melting in a mold not work?

Why would stamping it out with super heavy duty press not work?


How would you do it? and what other ways could you get the same effect?
 
According to Steve, the Unibody is more sturdy and can be cut thinner, therefore lighter. Without it the Mac Book Air wouldn't exist. But it does seem excessive, but I guess I can see why.
 
but could they not make a Unibody using easier methods and still get the same strength and thinness?
 
Don't know. According to Apple it's the only way to make it without it being weak and/or brittle.
 
A casting (making a body of out molten metal) would likely be too heavy or need to be too thick. That would add size. Also with castings you generally need to polish them or grind them down to remove imperfections and achieve uniformity.

There are some computers made of castings, but they are generally very small handhelds made from magnesium for the military and other specialized uses.
 
Chaos123x said:
Can't they just melt the metal into a mold?

Can they cold press the metal like how they stamp out soda cans and coins?
Click to expand...

If you melt the metal and pour it into a mold it would make the structure weak and brittle. You would then still need to make the internal frame from a separate piece of metal.

They could stamp the metal but then it would be heavy and bulky.

The reason they did CNC was because they could integrate the internal frame into the metal without it being heavy and weak.
 
Why would melting make is weak and brittle?

I thought the Aluminum was melted in a block in the first place.
 
I reckon they prolly researched a few options and crazy drills and lasers seemed to be the way to go... so, they probably don't see it as excessive.
 
all the metal they shave off goes back to the fire to be melted again to make the next macbook.
 
i would assume the carbon footprint of maintaining a vat of liquid aluminium is more than that of just some fricken lasers and drills and water being used for cnc.

carving out from a single block would be more sturdy than molding it from a cast...so much can go wrong in the cooling process alone...not to mention cooling it too fast = weaker frame. From a manufacturing standpoint wouldnt it be easier to carve out sheet of blocks then to wait for each unit to cool down properly?

I think in the end, it's better to just melt a log of aluminium into sheet blocks let that cool and carve it out and recycle the waste and repeat.
 
Chaos123x said:
Why would melting make is weak and brittle?

I thought the Aluminum was melted in a block in the first place.
Click to expand...

Yeah, though it's melted into very large ingots wich helps it to stay stable and cool slower making it stronger. Mind you, apple could melt ruff forms of the laptops and then machine them into shape, only less. But thing is, since the laptops are so thin, it's not worth it. There's a minimal thickness at wich you can cast aluminium into something solid and stable and the slabs they use are pobably as thick as what they would get from something casted, so I guess it becomes cheaper to buy mass produced slabs and use a machine to hack out super large chunks out of it in minimal time (as presented in the keynote).
 
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casting would not able to meet the tolerances required.

Cold stamping or extrusion can not male parts with different cross sections without a secondary process.

CNC maching that apple is using really is a cheap technology that have been used in other industries for years.
 
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