Last week the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a patent application from Apple that relates to a head-mounted display's internal fan system to direct airflow within the device housing. More importantly, the fan motor design is configured to deform in an HMD fall event so as to protect the fan motor system. If anything, the invention goes to show the extend that Apple's engineers went thought to get Apple Vision Pro just right at the smallest of levels.

Apple's patent covers an HMD, like Apple Vision Pro, that includes a device housing and a fan coupled to the device housing. The fan is configured to direct airflow within the device housing. The fan includes a fan housing, a motor hub, and a fan blade coupled to the motor hub.

In many implementations, the space between the components of the head-mounted display is very small, and the components themselves are inflexible and unable to absorb energy from an event, such as a force applied to the housing of the head-mounted display from dropping the head-mounted display, for example.

The head-mounted displays discussed throughout this patent filing includes components that can deform in response to an applied force to the head-mounted display. In some implementations, the head-mounted displays include components having fused breakage areas that permit relative motion between the components.

Apple's patent FIG. 5 below is a schematic illustration of a motor hub in a first configuration while FIG. 6 is a schematic illustration of a motor hub in a second configuration – a deformed configuration during Apple Vision is accidentally dropped. More specifically, Apple notes that The motor housing #128 is illustrated in a deformed configuration (e.g., crushed or collapsed) as compared to the first configuration shown in FIG. 5. The openings #131 reduce the overall structural rigidity of the motor housing  and allow the side surface #130 to deform in a reversible manner, such as collapsing, or non-reversible manner, such as crushing. The motor hub #119 is reversibly or irreversibly deformable from the first configuration, shown in FIG. 5, to the second configuration, shown in FIG. 6.

Apple's patent FIG. 9 above is a schematic plan view of a motor hub and fan blade assembly. More specifically, as seen in the top plan view shown in FIG. 9, the fan blade #125 has a fused breakage location #142 that is a narrowing or thinning cross-section adjacent to the motor hub. The fused breakage location is, in some implementations, a narrowing of the cross-section of the fan blade from the tip toward the connection with the motor hub. The fused breakage location can be a gradual or graduated narrowing area toward the connection of the fan blade with the motor hub. In some implementations, the fused breakage location 142 is a defined notch. 

In response to an applied force to the head-mounted display, such a generally frontal force or force to the side of the head-mounted display, the components shift, move, and/or deform to absorb the energy of the applied force. While the motor hub is configured to move in response to the applied force, the fan blade is configured to deform (e.g., twist, crush, and/or separate) relative to the motor hub.

Apple's patent FIG. 17 above is a schematic illustration of an optical module adjustment assembly for a head-mounted display. A first display assembly #105L is positioned in front of one eye, a second display assembly #105R is positioned in front of the other eye, and each of the first display assembly and the second display assembly is coupled to a support #178 at a fused breakage location. The fused breakage location allows the display assembly #172 to bend, twist, or separate from the support in response to an applied force.

For full details, review Apple's patent application 20240012256. The patent was officially filed days after WWDC23. So I don't know if that means that this fan system will be found in Apple's first iteration of Vision Pro or for Vision Pro 2. We may get confirmation of this one way or another during the iFixit teardown that could be made public later in February.