The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 45 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover laser processing of fabric used in the iPad Pro's Smart Keyboard, Liquid Metal roll forming and a design patent for the iPhone X's backside camera. We wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Patent: (Smart Keyboard) Laser Processing of Fabric

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to the laser process of fabric in creating the iPad Pro's Smart Keyboard. The housing may be formed from layers of material such as fabric and polymer layers. The circuitry of the electronic device may include components mounted on a printed circuit. The components may include movable components such as keys in a keyboard.

Some structures may be formed from layers of material (e.g., plastic, metal, and/or other materials). Other structures may be formed from intertwined strands of material (e.g., fabric).

Laser processing and other processing techniques may be used to process fabric structures and other structures for an electronic device during manufacturing. For example, fabric layers may be modified during manufacturing to adjust fabric stiffness and other characteristics.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional side view of an illustrative key for a keyboard; patent FIGS. 18 & 19 are illustrative border region processing patterns that may be used to modify an electronic device structure such as a fabric layer for a key in a keyboard.

Apple's granted patent 9,997,305 was originally filed in Q3 2015 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Patent: Liquid Metal Roll Forming

Apple's newly granted patent covers their invention relating to bulk-solidifying amorphous metal alloy roll forming of feedstock or component part.

Roll forming is a continuous bending operation in which a long strip of sheet metal (typically coiled steel) is passed through sets of rolls mounted on consecutive stands, each set performing only an incremental part of the bend, until the desired cross-section profile is obtained. Roll forming is ideal for producing constant-profile parts with long lengths and in large quantities. Up until now, this process couldn't apply to liquid metal or bulk metallic glass (BMG).

Apple's granted patent provides a proposed solution for roll forming of bulk-solidifying amorphous sheets is to heat them above the glass transition where they soften into an amorphous, yet somewhat fluid solid, and form them through a process such as thermoplastic forming or hot forming or various other things. In another embodiment, a molten bulk-solidifying amorphous alloy forming material could be molten in the vicinity of the rollers of the roll forming apparatus and rapidly cooled to form the BMG sheet.

FIG. 3 provides a schematic of a roll forming system of the embodiments herein to make BMG sheets; FIG. 4 provides a schematic of a schematic of a roll forming system of the embodiments herein to make laminated BMG sheets.

Apple's granted patent 9,994,932 was originally filed in Q3 2013 and published today by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

Apple granted an iPhone X Design Patent

Today USPTO granted Apple a design patent for the iPhone X backside camera. The design notes that "the dashed broken lines in the figures show portions of the electronic device that form no part of the claimed design." What remains is the camera in dark outline. The dashed lines simply illustrate what iPhone model the camera belongs to.

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today

Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of granted patents with associated graphics for journalistic news purposes as each Granted Patent is revealed by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Readers are cautioned that the full text of any Granted Patent should be read in its entirety for full details. About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Those using abusive language or behavior will result in being blacklisted on Disqus.