Technology to thin Microsoft's products that Apple needs to learn

Thinness is haunting computer equipment manufacturers and to do such devices, not only need imaginative designers but also the technology behind it.

The thinness of the device seems to be an obsession with Apple. In early April, Apple unveiled its thinnest Macbook ever, with a thickness of only 13.1 mm, 24% thinner than the 11-inch Macbook Air. A computer with a thickness just equal to a pencil.

However, if placed next to Microsoft's Surface Pro 4, Apple's new Macbook still has to be ashamed of its ultra-slim title.With a thickness of only 8.4mm including hinges, the Surface Pro 4 is 35% thinner than the new Macbook (though still thicker than the iPad Pro with 6.9mm).

With a thickness of only 8.4mm including hinges, the Surface Pro 4 is 35% thinner than the new Macbook.

Perhaps that is the reason for rumors that Apple will use the same hinge manufacturing process as Microsoft to create a slimmer new Macbook, scheduled to launch in the second half of 2016: metal injection molding process .

In fact, Apple has also applied this production process to create some small micro-metal components inside the iPhone and iPad, but for the Macbook, this may be the first time. So this little-known process has nothing special that makes personal computing devices more compact but still so solid.

Hinge of Microsoft Surface Pro 4.

Metal Injection Molding - What is Metal Injection Molding?

Even many people who are not industrial designers have heard the term plastic injection molding. A lot of plastics around us are made with this method. However, one of the few reasons people know about metal injection molding is because they are very expensive.

Expensive but interesting, this fabrication method is used to create complex, but very small, metal parts. They are so small that it is difficult to process, and the errors are too high to cast. To see the precision of casting these microscopic objects, look at the edges of the arrowheads below:

This fabrication method is used to create complex, but very small, metal parts.

This is how the metal injection process (MIM) works, and you'll understand why it's so expensive:

First, ultra-fine metal powder is mixed with a binder such as wax or plastic. After mixing well together, this mixture is considered as the basic material, called "feedstock". The mixture is then stuffed into a injection molding machine and shot into a mold.

The amount of mixture for each squeeze is very small, the maximum is only about 100g, which means that if you want to make a bigger piece, you need to shoot a lot in a mold in different positions, to Get the full size of the object to be fabricated.

When removed from the mold, the object is also called the "green" part , which still contains metal powder and binder. Next, these objects are immersed in chemical solutions or heated, to evaporate and remove binders in the object.

The size and smoothness of the finished product is amazing.

After this stage, the object has been removed from the adhesive, called the "brown" part . At this point, the object will look like a piece of Swiss cheese, with tiny holes where the binder has been removed. Obviously, with pits limiting on such a fragile object, it is not ready for practical use. Therefore, the object will go through the next stage.

The object is then put into the kiln, to sinter the metal parts together. This stage is similar to the melting of a piece of Swiss cheese, at which point the holes will be filled with molten cheese. However, unlike cheese, MIM will still retain its appearance.

Now that you have the finished product, it will basically be as sturdy as the metal parts produced by the traditional method, but with errors on the edges of the object at only 0.07mm.

Maybe this technology is still something too alien to our daily life until holding a new Surface Pro 4 or Macbook in the second half of this year. However, according to BCC Research, the global market value for this technology has increased from US $ 382 million in 2004 to US $ 1.5 billion in 2012, and is expected to reach nearly US $ 2.9 billion in the year. 2018.

Obviously, there are more and more appliances around us that use this manufacturing method, but it's too small for us to recognize easily.