[ad_1]
If you are of a certain age, you will remember the glorious days Apple made its plastic MacBooks with matt black finishes. There hasn’t been a black MacBook since the plastic was changed to aluminum (the closest thing now is space gray), but that may soon change thanks to the efforts of Apple engineers.
It is not easy to paint an aluminum device black. To add a color finish to a metal, it must undergo an anodizing process that allows for a more adhesive surface to fix the paint pigments. But anodized metals have glossy finishes which, due to the amount of light they reflect, make black appear gray.
Now Apple has been inspired by Vantablack develop an alternative technique that prevents light from bouncing off the aluminum surface, creating a perfect black finish.
Second The patent, the process begins by anodizing the surface of a metal substrate (the aluminum cover of a MacBook, for example), injecting colored particles into the microscopic pores of the resulting metal oxide layer, and adding a final layer with characteristics that drastically reduce the reflectivity of the metal.
An example would be carving a series of irregular protrusions and indentations, varying in height by just a couple of micrometers, to trap light and bounce off in random directions, creating a more diffuse reflection.
Developed by Surrey NanoSystems, Vantablack is made up of microscopic carbon nanotubes that can trap and absorb over 99.97% of visible light, making paint appear almost black. absolute to the human eye.
Vantablack is a registered trademark , which is why Apple has been working on their own methods of painting their products black.
.
[ad_2]
Source link
