New rumors about macbook's manufacturing process...

It would appear, according to macrumors citing another site, that the 'brick' simply implies apple's new manufacturing process for the upcoming macbook refresh, using lasers to literally cut out a solid, one-piece case from a brick of aluminum.
Interesting indeed if it's true, and it backs up the rumors that the new macbooks will be aluminum.

 

Makes sense, I don't know why they considered anything to be called "Brick" anyway...

 

I would imagine that just cutting a case out of aluminium is quite costly, since you'll have to recyle quite a bit of material per every chasis.

 

That was my thought too, but someone in that thread said, maybe they could recycle it, making apple more green like they said they will be.

 

I agree. I don't think they would do such a thing for their value product line.

And besides, if it's a single solid piece of aluminum how do you open it to put stuff inside? Last time Apple tried to make a single piece case, it was the G4 Cube and that didn't work out too well.

 

This method of using bar stock is popular with other industries; solid aluminum fishing reels, etc. Companies using this process are usually not equipped to remelt the metal down, but recycle, as mentioned, recouping costs for their next piece of raw material. What is usually done during construction, are segments are cut, instead of 1 continuous piece, so I would expect to see all of the current upgrade/access windows as well as additional windows for mobo, etc. my 2 cents...

 

so whats everyone's opinion on "oct 14" as the date? i'm personally losing hope since there haven't been any invitations sent out for a keynote... i need a new laptop!!

 

Being that the casing is so thin, I don't see how it would benefit them at all to do it that way.
This is coming from a guy that has been a machinist for over four years...

The only thing I can see it being good for is making a more rigid case.

Talin; Recycling metal borings doesn't make you more green. It means you want to get some money for the extra material. A more green process would be to stamp the cases from a solid piece of aluminum, because it has far less excess metal, and that excess doesn't have to get re-melted.

I'm one of the most un-green people I know, and at my old job, I would save cast aluminum pieces, and take them in every 6 months for a nice stack of cash that equaled a paycheck. Unfortunately, borings (chips) bring in far less money.

 

Interesting Modly. I'm not a machinist, so I wouldn't know about such things.
It's all speculation really, and it could all just be a false rumor.

@fastrandstrongr: Some at macrumors have stated that invites for an event would go out a week beforehand, so it would probably start showing up this tuesday if there were an event on the 14th.

 

gotcha. i was going to ask what the timeframe for an invite usually is. here's to hopin!

 

Yeah I have some experience in a machine shop and making the cases that way is a wast of material and money, since even tho you can recycle the metal you won't be getting the same cost back. It would also be more time consuming then just stamping them out.

 

My guess is that parts of the mb could be made using this process, like the outer shell of the lid and the base. The only issue I have is that the accessibility to the end user could go down quite a bit.
Guess we'll see in a few weeks
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I've thought of that too amidst all the speculation. It might just be sections that are fabbed, and I also hope that accessibility wont be hindered.

Underpantman, are you a boxers or briefs kind of guy? [ Sorry couldn't resist ]

 

Apple make me confused !

 

I would assume it would be a two-piece shell, just because of how hard it would be to machine a one-piece case. This process would take 30 minutes a case if they did something like that, where as the current stamping method would take... 5-10 seconds.

Even making cast pieces would cost less and take less time... (My toughbook is made of cast magnesium, which I wouldn't dare machine... But it provides a very rigid case!).