Lightweight and compact, but the performance is no less than a laptop computer to meet the needs of people anywhere, anytime to carry out business and entertainment. However, people in the purchase of laptop computers, taking into account the CPU frequency, hard disk capacity, display size and other factors, but few people noticed the laptop shell material. In fact, this inconspicuous laptop shell on the laptop has an important significance, because people in the process of using the laptop, sometimes may be subjected to some external impact, if the laptop's external material is not hard enough, it is possible to cause the screen to bend the phenomenon of shortening the service life of the screen. In addition, the laptop shell is not only the most direct way to protect the body, but also affects its cooling effect, "weight", aesthetics of the important factors, therefore, a comprehensive, in-depth understanding of the laptop shell material will be able to buy a suitable for their own laptop has a great deal of help. Below, let's enter the laptop shell "world" it!
A laptop shell why not use stainless steel and other metals as materials?
At present, the market basically does not use stainless steel and other metals to do laptop shell, this is why? As we all know, stainless steel type of metal shell on the machine internal equipment protection than engineering plastics much stronger, but because the use of stainless steel metal shell will inevitably increase the weight of the machine, and therefore difficult to get on the laptop application. Laptop computer mobile work characteristics of its weight on the machine has very strict requirements. Generally speaking, more than 3 kilograms of the machine will lose the significance of mobile work. It is also for weight considerations, the major manufacturers have to use engineering plastics or aluminum alloy as the shell of the material.
Second, the notebook computer common shell material classification
(a), alloy shell
1, aluminum-magnesium alloy
Figure: aluminum-magnesium alloy shell
Aluminum-magnesium alloy is generally the main element of aluminum, and then mixed with a small amount of magnesium or other metal materials to strengthen its hardness. Because it is a metal itself, its thermal conductivity and strength is particularly outstanding. Aluminum-magnesium alloy is firm and lightweight, low density, better heat dissipation, compression resistance, can fully meet the 3C products highly integrated, thin, light, miniaturized, anti-wrestling and electromagnetic shielding and heat dissipation requirements. Its hardness is several times the traditional plastic case, but the weight is only one-third of the latter, usually used for medium and high-grade ultra-thin type or smaller size of the notebook shell. Moreover, the silver-white magnesium-aluminum alloy shell can make the product more luxurious, beautiful, and easy to color, can be personalized through the surface treatment process into powder blue and pink, for the laptop to add a lot of color, which is engineering plastics, as well as carbon fiber can not be compared. Therefore, aluminum-magnesium alloy has become the portable laptop shell material of choice, most of the manufacturers of laptop products are currently using aluminum-magnesium alloy shell technology.
However, magnesium-aluminum alloys can't be called the best choice when it comes to a combination of comfort and long-term use. Magnesium-aluminum alloy machines tend to use the body shell as a means of heat dissipation, so that in use, the body shell will have a higher temperature, giving people an uncomfortable feeling. Moreover, magnesium aluminum alloy is not very strong and wear-resistant, use for a long time, the original silver-white color will wear off, revealing its dark gray original face, if accidentally scratched, that the road scoring will also be very eye-catching. In addition, the weakness of aluminum-magnesium alloy is the higher cost, more expensive, and molding is more difficult than ABS (need to use stamping or die-casting process), so the laptop computer is generally only aluminum-magnesium alloy used in the top cover, very few models (such as the SONY VAIO N505) with aluminum-magnesium alloy to create the entire chassis.
2, titanium alloy
Aluminum magnesium alloy is good, but there are many shortcomings. In order to overcome the shortcomings of aluminum magnesium gold material, IBM engineers to a more effective material - carbon fiber reinforced titanium composite material used in notebook computers. Titanium is an expensive metal, much more expensive than magnesium, before it is mainly used for those who require high strength, low weight applications of special occasions, such as aerospace components, aircraft manufacturing and medical devices. Its excellent impact resistance properties make it perfect for racing car shells and sports equipment such as golf clubs. Titanium alloy material can be said to be a reinforced version of aluminum-magnesium alloy, regardless of heat dissipation, strength or surface texture are superior to aluminum-magnesium alloy material, and processing performance is better, the shape is more complex than the aluminum-magnesium alloy. Its key breakthrough is stronger toughness, and become thinner. In terms of toughness, titanium alloy is three to four times that of magnesium alloy. The higher the toughness, the more pressure it can withstand, and the more it can support large displays. As a result, titanium models do not need to reserve too wide a frame around the panel, even with a 15-inch display. As for thinness, titanium alloy thickness of only 0.5mm, is half of the magnesium alloy, thickness halved can make the laptop volume more petite. It's also a material that IBM has specialized in many of its notebooks in recent years, and it hasn't been seen in any other notebook yet.
In fact, it's not a matter of whether it's titanium or magnesium alloy, the main material is still aluminum, the composition of which varies according to the use, generally mixed into the alloy is only 2-3%. This is also the chemical properties of this metal aluminum decided, because pure aluminum material is very soft, but after adding trace amounts of other metals, not only become harder, and very tough, doped metal because only accounted for a rather small ratio like, so the overall weight will not have too much change. Titanium alloy and magnesium alloy in addition to the different metal itself, the biggest difference, is also infiltrated into the carbon fiber material, so that the overall hardness to be further strengthened. Therefore, IBM notebook known as "black gold steel" name is deserved. However, IBM does not mean that all models or a book in the shell all with this material, will also be useful to magnesium alloy and PC + ABS materials. The aforementioned T40 is so.
Photo: "Black Gold Steel"
Titanium alloy's only drawback is that it must be welded and other complex processing procedures to make the complex structure of the laptop shell, these production processes derive considerable costs, and therefore very expensive. At present, titanium alloys and other titanium composite materials are still IBM-specific materials, which is one of the reasons why IBM laptops are more expensive, right?
(2), plastic shell
1, carbon fiber
Carbon fiber material is a very interesting material, it has both aluminum-magnesium alloy elegant and sturdy characteristics, but also has the high plasticity of ABS engineering plastics. Its appearance is similar to plastic, but the strength and thermal conductivity is better than ordinary ABS plastic, and carbon fiber is a conductive material, can play a similar role as metal shielding (ABS shell needs another layer of metal plating film to shield). Therefore, as early as April 1998 IBM was the first to launch the use of carbon fiber shell of the notebook computer, but also IBM has been vigorously promote the protagonist. According to IBM's information, carbon fiber toughness is twice the aluminum-magnesium alloy, and the best heat dissipation. If the use of the same time, the shell of the carbon fiber models touch the least hot. The disadvantage of carbon fiber is the higher cost, molding is not as easy as ABS shell, so the shape of the carbon fiber enclosure is generally relatively simple lack of change, coloring is also more difficult. In addition, carbon fiber cases have the disadvantage that if the grounding is not good, there will be a slight sense of leakage, so IBM has covered its carbon fiber cases with an insulating coating.
2, PC-GF-## (polycarbonate PC)
PC-GF-## is also a laptop computer shell used in the material, its raw material is petroleum, processed by the polyester chips factory into a polyester chips granules, and then processed by the plastics factory into a finished product, it is less than the PC ＋ ABS ABS some of the characteristics of ABS, but the PC-GF-## has its own characteristics. Different specifications have different characteristics, such as PC-GF10, PC-GF15, PC-GF20, PC-GF30, etc., with ultra-high mechanical properties, heat-resistant and dimensional stability, it can replace not kind of degree of commercial electrical appliances inside the aluminum, lead, or other metal stamping and die casting.
PC-GF-### is also called reinforced modified PC, it also has excellent impact strength, high heat resistance and good dimensional stability. Stable in water, mineral and organic acids, partially soluble in aromatic carbohydrates, soluble in chlorides, and decomposes under the action of strong bases. Glass fiber and carbon fiber reinforced PCs have very low water absorption. Reinforced PC can greatly improve corrosion resistance to the environment. Highly flowable PC can be used to make thin-walled parts of less than 1 mm. the creep resistance and deformation resistance under load of PC-modified materials are significantly improved. From a practical point of view, its thermal performance is also better than ABS plastic, heat dispersion is more uniform, its biggest drawback is more brittle, a fall on the break, we commonly see CD-ROM is made of this material.
The use of this material is more significant is FUJITSU, in many models are used PC-GF20 this material, and is the whole shell are using this material. The PC-GF-# material feels like metal, both on the surface and to the touch. If there is no logo inside the laptop, from the outer surface alone without looking very carefully, you may think that it will be it is an alloy material. Therefore, we should pay attention to distinguish when buying, don't be confused by its appearance oh.
3, ABS engineering plastics
ABS engineering plastics in the laptop may be the most used, almost in every book can be found inside: some used in the entire shell, some just used in the top cover of the screen, and some just in the memory or hard disk cover to use. In domestic laptops, most of the laptops labeled as ordinary chassis are clear with this material, and in foreign brands, the volume of the slightly larger (that is, all built-in laptop) in the majority of ASB work plastic, such as we are very familiar with the SONY Z1's wrist rest and the top cover of the screen. The biggest advantage of engineering plastics is that they are cheap.
ABS engineering plastics that PC + ABS (engineering plastics alloy), in the chemical industry's Chinese name is called Plastic Alloy, the reason why the name PC + ABS, because this material has both the PC resin's excellent heat and weather resistance, dimensional stability and impact resistance, but also has the ABS resin excellent processing fluidity. So applied to thin-walled and complex shape products, can maintain its excellent performance, as well as to maintain the plastic and an ester composition of the material's molding properties. It is now mainly used in communication equipment, household appliances, automobiles, computers and peripheral parts.
The most common disadvantages of ABS engineering plastics are their heavy mass and poor thermal conductivity. In addition, ABS is also a carcinogenic chemical, inhaled into the human body when the amount reaches a certain level will cause cancer, of course, people just use the laptop, in general, will not inhale this chemical, but the user long-term close to face the laptop, will inhale a small amount of ABS emitted odors, in the health of the unfavorable.
In general, ABS engineering plastics due to the low cost, by most laptop manufacturers, most of the current plastic shell laptop are using ABS engineering plastics as raw materials, while carbon fiber and polycarbonate acetate is less common.
Laptop shell material in addition to the above materials, Fujitsu and Fujitsu Research Institute recently developed a new material successfully, this material is processed through the plant material into the laptop body technology - "plant-based resin body technology This material is produced by processing plant materials into laptop computer bodies through a technology called "Plant-based resin body technology," which uses polylactic acid (PLA), a raw material made from corn and other plants, as the main ingredient, and possesses flame-retardant properties and strength and heat-resistance comparable to that of ABS resin. This material can be used as a substitute material for magnesium alloys and petroleum-based resins, which are in short supply. Moreover, since the energy consumption required to produce the body can be reduced by about 40% compared with conventional petroleum-based resins, it can contribute to the reduction of environmental loads.
However, despite the fact that laptop manufacturers are currently working hard on the selection of materials for laptop shells, they still haven't been able to find a material that meets the ideal price/performance ratio. Undoubtedly, high performance and low price is the direction of notebook development, notebook lighter and thinner price is an inevitable trend, on this basis, notebook manufacturers are bound to continue to strive to find and develop better materials.
Three, the laptop shell material identification methods
Through the author of the above introduction, I believe that most readers have a more comprehensive understanding of the materials used in the laptop shell. In the current market, many laptop computers are claimed to be the use of aluminum-magnesium alloy shell, in fact, at present in the following ten thousand yuan in the product, most of the products are engineering plastics shell, many businesses in order to attract customers, often the shell looks stronger products said to be magnesium-aluminum alloy metal shell, in fact, these products are just on a layer of metal coating only. So, how do we judge what material is used in the laptop when buying?
1, read the manual. If the laptop is made of superior materials, its manual may have indicated what materials are used to make the shell, of course, this is not necessarily there, and, if the material is poorer, it will certainly not be there.
2, through the sense of touch to judge. Touch the laptop shell, if it is a plastic shell, its feeling in addition to the feeling of Mo Sha, almost then experience nothing, especially PC + ABS. If it is an alloy in addition to the feeling of Mo Sha itself there is a very obvious penetration of the kind of cold, of course, is in the state of shutdown. If it is on for a long time, we can touch the center of the screen cover, because that place is usually no heat to reach, you can get an accurate feeling.
3. Ask the salesperson. Although the information obtained in this way is often inaccurate, because the sales staff in order to be able to sell the machine, often exaggerate, but sometimes can get some useful information, not to mention that some salespeople will be more honest, we can not use the same kind of vision to all salespeople to look at.
4, through the sound to determine. Listen to the sound to identify whether it is plastic or alloy. Tap the surface of the laptop shell with your hand, if it is a plastic shell, the sound is relatively heavy some, and will feel some elasticity; if it is an aluminum alloy then the sound is obviously very brittle, and knocking on the edge of the part of the time, there will be a clear metal collision sound, but also feel the subtle counter-impact on the fingers of the feeling.
6, to the manufacturer's website to find information. Some dealers in order to increase the price of their own sales of notebooks, online offer information will be played on the "aluminum-magnesium alloy" shell of the word, which for some of the following ten thousand yuan of notebook computers, we must pay attention to, because it is likely to be false. At this point, we can go to the manufacturer's website to find information to see the technical parameters of this laptop in the end there is no "aluminum-magnesium alloy" words. Generally speaking, if this material is used to do the shell of the manufacturer will be a selling point and labeled out, otherwise either directly labeled as a plastic shell, or not labeled shell material, but generally will not be false, because the manufacturers want to pay attention to their own image, if false, once debunked, will be subjected to a lot of reputational losses, and dealers do not have these concerns.
7, by observing its edge to judge. Through the observation of its edge, we can also see some clues. Above we have said, no matter what material, the surface will be painted, but the paint is only on the outer surface, and the inner surface of course not. Therefore, we can further determine by looking at the edges of the inner surface. So, how can we see the surface? Take out the battery, if the CD-ROM drive can be extracted, pull out the CD-ROM drive, then in the machine at the edge of these components can be seen on the inner surface of the shell of the real face: is plastic or alloy is obvious. If it's PC+ABS, it will have a distinctly plastic texture; PC-GF looks like it has a smooth surface, like it has a metallic layer, while aluminum alloy is metallic in color and you should be able to distinguish it easily. However, this method is not applicable to all models, some of the notebook workmanship above the really very detailed, in all the edges of the inner surface of the exposed shirt on the very thin zinc-platinum paper, or paper-thin aluminum alloy sheet.
Four, to find out the laptop computer manufacturers shell with the law
Manufacturers in order to maximize savings in production costs, usually have to buy materials in bulk, and a one-time purchase of the same item the more the price is usually the lower, on the minimum to reduce the cost of production, so in the same brand, there will often be the use of the same specific material to do the laptop shell case is very regular. .
FUJITSU, for example, now almost all of the new models of laptop computers are used PC-GF this material, has not been found in other brands of the notebook in the use of this material. PC + ABS this material due to the low cost of the use of it can greatly reduce the cost of the machine, so most of the national brand of laptop computers are used to do the notebook computer shell, only a few are the use of aluminum magnesium shell, and only a few are the use of aluminum magnesium shell, and the use of the same brand of laptop computers. Shell, only a few are using aluminum-magnesium alloy to do the shell. In foreign brands of notebook computers, even if some high-grade volume of slightly larger models, its wrist rest on the cover shell is mostly PC + ABS, or screen cover shell is also PC + ABS, aluminum-magnesium alloy used in the bottom shell, but in the ultra-thin ultra-small models, due to its heat dissipation of the machine requires a very high degree of heat dissipation, so it will also be the whole shell are used aluminum-magnesium alloy. As for the titanium alloy is even more needless to say, at present it is only IBM's laptop to use this material. There are some models of DELL's machine, more distinctive: shell with PC + ABS, but inside the body is a large number of magnesium aluminum alloy module housed in the edge or inside the gap between the components to heat dispersion. Familiarize yourself with these patterns to help us quickly determine which brand of laptop is made of what material for the shell.
V. Aluminum-magnesium alloy shell laptop, you really need?
Figure: aluminum-magnesium alloy shell
According to relevant data, last year, the number of aluminum-magnesium alloy chassis manufacturing laptop 6 million to 7.5 million units, and this year's number is expected to double. Aluminum-magnesium alloy shell laptop has become more and more, then, you really need this kind of shell laptop?