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Why no Titanium Macbook pro?

Titanium is strong, but is more flexible than most materials. They make guns out of it but need steel barrels b/c Ti is too flexible. Everyone has some romantic idea of what titanium is, its not some ultra futuristic material, its not as great as you think. Why not a ceramic composite? Like body armor lol. Or like the ceramic on the space shuttle that is uber efficient at heat transfer.
 
Aluminum is somewhat costly to manufacture, it's cheap though to melt down old aluminum pot, pans, old Vega motors, beer cans. How many beer cans does it take to make a uMBP?. Last I heard there wasn't much in the way of titanium production here in the states. Most of it comes from Russia... along with a hefty price tag. Titanium is also a mother to machine, it's really tough. The tools that cut these aluminum cases will last for maybe fifty tops and bottoms whereas if they were made from titanium..they might get three tops and bottoms, so the tooling is way more expensive. It's also heavier than aluminum but almost as strong as steel. Aluminum is a great material for a laptop as it has all the qualities one needs. A military hard coat anodizing would make these beauties a lot tougher. They'd be kinda ugly but they wouldn't scratch or bend. Well, not as easily. I kinda like the idea of it matching my Kimber though.
 
Might as well make a Diamond MacBook as well. That would be cute.
 
For all the tiny little holes I think they use a laser. But for the bulk of the material, they are machined, most likely from bar stock, on big machines many at a time.
 
mikes70mustang said:
Titanium is strong, but is more flexible than most materials. They make guns out of it but need steel barrels b/c Ti is too flexible. Everyone has some romantic idea of what titanium is, its not some ultra futuristic material, its not as great as you think. Why not a ceramic composite? Like body armor lol. Or like the ceramic on the space shuttle that is uber efficient at heat transfer.
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To go a bit off topic, I'm fairly certain that the ceramic tiles on the shuttle are designed not to transfer heat. They are meant to keep heat out which, if used as the body of a MBP keep all that heat in.
 
hellrider said:
aluminum is bendable. one slight drop and you've got a deformed case :mad:
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My sister-in-law worked for apple durring the Ti to Al switch on the powerbooks. The main reason was that stamping titanium was simply too expensive, it is so hard that they were replacing very expensive dies all too often.
 
dont know if this is applicable still but my ti pbG4 got horribly hot so i thing aluminum conducts heat better
 
i'd like to see what other materials would be usable too. also i think someone should offer that ugly aluminium toughening someone mentioned earier. to the people who say they dont understand why this thread is being paid attention to i say i dont know why you think anyone would pay attention to you!
 
actually aluminum is LIGHTER than titanium. The density of aluminum is 2.7g/cm^3 whereas the density of titanium is 4.54g/cm^3. Since the deformation of the aluminum acts like a crumple zone in a car and actually SAVES the stuff inside the enclosure, there's no real reason to go to titanium.
 
Funny you'd ask--seems a certain BestBuy employee is under the impression that they already do make titanium laptops. I was admiring an iMac at BestBuy when this bouncer looking employee there brings a girl over to the unibody MacBooks and proceeds to say "Yeah this one right here is made of titanium--very solid!!" at which point I tuned into the conversation only to hear him then say how he actually HAS one of them which begged the question in my mind of whether this dude was just a sadly dumb and misinformed customer AND employee or a blatant liar..in either case I felt terrible for the woman who was in the process of being conned..
 
duky said:
Funny you'd ask--seems a certain BestBuy employee is under the impression that they already do make titanium laptops. I was admiring an iMac at BestBuy when this bouncer looking employee there brings a girl over to the unibody MacBooks and proceeds to say "Yeah this one right here is made of titanium--very solid!!" at which point I tuned into the conversation only to hear him then say how he actually HAS one of them which begged the question in my mind of whether this dude was just a sadly dumb and misinformed customer AND employee or a blatant liar..in either case I felt terrible for the woman who was in the process of being conned..
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I don't really feel sorry for any customer that walks into a store being completley clueless about a product and trusting a salesperson to inform them about it. There is so much information out there about every product on the internet that you could possibly purchase ESPECIALLY electronics that I find it rather inexcusable to claim ignorance when being "conned" by a salesperson.
 
...I'd like to see a carbon weave case on a magnesium frame...that would be durable...

:apple: probably uses alum due to the cheap cost and when you drop your uMB/MBP it dents = accidental damage not covered by applecare...
 
I don't really feel sorry for any customer that walks into a store being completley clueless about a product and trusting a salesperson to inform them about it. There is so much information out there about every product on the internet that you could possibly purchase ESPECIALLY electronics that I find it rather inexcusable to claim ignorance when being "conned" by a salesperson.
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dont be fooled- BestBuy employees are trained to mislead and misinform customers so they can buy
the most expensive product offered. Also, you are pushed to get a ******** warranty which is pure profit for them. I was once told that Brand A of CD was better than Brand B because "the CD was engineered to make the bass sound better".
 
yellow said:
Availability is another strong factor I suspect.
Aluminum being #13 on the Periodic Table, as opposed to Titanium being #22.

Aluminum is the most abundant metal on Earth, therefore it's cheapest to aquire.
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Why would the atomic number have anything to do with its abundance?
 
miles01110 said:
Because heat transfer isn't the only characteristic you want in a laptop case. Ceramic/composite would shatter or chip if it was dropped, which is decidedly undesirable. It also requires a lengthy fabrication process.
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They make ceramic that doesnt chip or become brittle. Have you even seen the show about how they make ceramic composite body armor that stops armor piercing rounds from a .50 cal? I think thats as strong as it gets.
 
P Mentior said:
To go a bit off topic, I'm fairly certain that the ceramic tiles on the shuttle are designed not to transfer heat. They are meant to keep heat out which, if used as the body of a MBP keep all that heat in.
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Its not exactly a shield. It absorbs and dissipates it so well that it keeps the shuttle safe. I saw a video of when they put a shuttle brick in a furnace. And when he pulled it out it was glowing, then he took off his glove and held it whilst still glowing.
 
M-5 said:
Might as well make a Diamond MacBook as well. That would be cute.
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That would make sense, diamond transfers heat very well. Thats why diamonds are nicknamed "ice" b/c if you put a big enough diamond on your tongue it would actually feel cool.
 
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