Apple's new high-end iPhones now promotes "a new level of water and dust resistance" in their marketing verbiage on their website. Apple's iPhone Xs and Xs Max are now IP68 rated for longer water resistance. For the new high-end iPhones it means that they could be immersed in 1.5 meters of freshwater for up to 30 minutes." Apple's Phil Schiller stated it also extends to "salt water" and beverages like wine or beer starting at the 40:58 minute mark of yesterday's keynote.





Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that focuses on going way beyond "dust resistance" and provide future iPhones with "abrasion resistance."





Apple's patent FIG. 6 above shows an isometric cross-section view of a portion of an iPhone housing with an abrasion-resistant coating; FIG. 7 shows a flowchart indicating a process for forming an abrasion-resistant coating.

An Apple fan wrote in a MacRumor Forum that he dropped his iPhone X and the finish peeled. He made it known that the iPhone X didn't offer "abrasion resistance." Neither do the new iPhones. So some Apple fans will be happy to know that Apple is working on delivering this in future iDevices.

Apple notes in their filing that their invention relates to "abrasion-resistant coatings useful for coating surfaces of consumer products, such as consumer electronic devices. In particular embodiments, the abrasion-resistant coatings include a porous oxide layer that provides structural support for an overlying hard layer formed of a highly abrasion-resistant material.

According to one embodiment, a housing for an electronic device is described. The housing includes a metal portion defining a cavity suitable for carrying internal electronic components. The housing also includes an abrasion-resistant coating disposed on a metal surface of the metal portion. The abrasion-resistant coating includes a hard layer characterized as having a first hardness. The abrasion-resistant coating also includes an intermediate layer grown from the metal portion and overlaid by the hard layer. The intermediate layer is composed of a porous oxide and is characterized as having a second hardness, wherein the first hardness is greater than the second hardness."

Apple's patent application 20180263130 was originally filed back in Q1 2017 and published today by the U.S. Patent Office. Considering that this is a patent application, the timing of such a product to market is unknown at this time.

Inventors

Two of the inventors listed on this patent are: James Curran, Anodizing Research and Development. Curran notes on his LinkedIn Account: "Inventor of numerous processes for surface finishing aluminum, magnesium and titanium alloys, including those which enabled the anodizing of the iPhone and the Apple Watch 7000-series aluminum enclosures."; and Brian Tryon, Materials and Process Engineer. His LinkedIn account notes: "Accomplished materials engineer who has deployed materials technologies in both aerospace and consumer electronics fields." He came to Apple via Pratt & Whitney.





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