We are in the "season" of registering invention patents and today I present one in which Apple describes a method of treating its products against the destructive effects of corrosion, or "rusting" in common parlance. Apple calls the process dual anodization and it refers to the application of 2 layers of protective solution over the metal casings of its products and we are probably talking about MacBooks here. In the patent this process is described by applying an "anodizing" layer over the metal surface, cleaning certain parts of this layer and applying a second one. The 2 layers can have different properties, ie: different color, different structural properties or different degrees of resistance to erosion.
A metal surface treated to have two anodized layers or regions may be used in electronic devices. The surface treatment may include performing a first anodization process to create a first anodized layer, removing the first anodized layer at select locations, and performing a second anodization process to create a second anodized layer at the select locations. The first and second anodized regions may have different decorative properties, such as color, and different structural properties, such as degree of abrasion resistance. One of the anodization processes may be hard anodization and the other may be standard anodization.
Of course, we are only talking about a patent that will probably never be implemented in an Apple product, but it is interesting to see what the company is still working on today.
