CINNO Research industry information, there have been rumors before that Apple’s “iPhone Fold” may use a gear system to achieve the bending performance of the product. They believe that this design can reduce the damage to some vulnerable components during the product bending process.
As the name suggests, one of the biggest features of the folding device mentioned in the title is that the screen can be folded. However, just like the various problems experienced by Samsung’s first foldable smartphone, a big challenge facing the current folding Display is the life of the product. After all, folding will affect the life of the product’s components.
One of the problems here is: how to control how the screen actually folds and unfolds. While a simple hinge system can easily fold a product, it doesn’t actually provide enough support where the folding damage is greatest, and it certainly doesn’t control the folding process.
In fact, control over these key points can bring many benefits, such as it prevents accidental damage to the device due to excessive bending or moving too fast.
Apple is trying to solve the problem with a support mechanism in a patent granted to Apple by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Tuesday titled “A Folding Electronic Device with Gear Hinge.”
This time is a grant of a patent application, which was actually originally filed on April 15, 2020. In the patent, Apple proposes various gear systems that could be used on the hinge mechanism. According to the introduction, this gear system including a toothed member and a rack can rotate and roll along the rack member to support and protect the device when the device is folded and unfolded.
As described in the patent, these gears allow the support structure to move when the device is unfolded or folded, thereby supporting and protecting critical areas of the display throughout operation. In addition to gears, Apple also uses linkages that hold individual gears relative to each other according to their respective requirements.
Apple’s system allows users to open iPhone products in a specific way relative to the device’s central spine, as defined by arrangement. In fact, the two parts can unfold independently, or they can unfold to both sides at the same speed.
Like other patents, Apple covers a number of different points in this patent application, covering not only a hinge that folds in, but a display device that folds out.
Apple has revealed in the patent its obvious intention to use it in products such as the iPhone or iPad in the future, of course, the application of this design is not limited to this, but also includes computer monitors, media players, watches and wristband devices, headphones or Head-mounted devices, or even in-car displays like “Apple Car”. The inventors of the patent include Kai Wang, Zhiyong Cedric Xia and Michael B. Wittenberg.
Apple files a large number of patent applications every week, but these patent applications only indicate the areas of Apple’s current research and development efforts, and there is no guarantee that it will be used in its future products and services.
The idea of Apple’s folding display and hinge mechanism surfaced as early as 2016 in a patent application that suggested the system could be used to clip iPhones to clothing. In addition, a more complex hinge mechanism will also appear in people’s field of vision in December 2020. According to the content of this patent application, this multi-link hinge structure can provide support and protection at key positions after the screen product is bent .
Apple has also considered some other complex bending combinations, such as a folding device proposed in 2016, which was designed with multiple flexible folding areas.
Finally, Apple also considered other issues that could affect the strength of the display, such as temperature. In a patent application filed by Apple in March 2021, they proposed to use elements or pixels to heat the flexible bends of the display during warm weather, while also using a snap-on device to prevent unsafe conditions. its open.
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