Apple introduced water-resistance officially with the release of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus and carried this Ingress Protection with the release of future devices. Now it looks like the company is going to be upgrading the water-resistance capabilities of future devices, possibly even waterproofing them to an extent. This will be done by introducing a new sealing technology, which we’ll be talking about right here.
Latest Patent Describes a Liquid-Tight Enhancement That Will Give Future iPhone Models Better Waterproofing Capabilities
Apple is always thinking of introducing new ways to improve its technology, which in turn will improve the iPhone turnover per year. This time, it is about waterproofing its products with a new liquid-tight advancement. This change is supposed to protect the devices from any possible means necessary. Getting to the gist of it, the seal of the phone whenever a connector is plugged into a port is present to prevent anything from entering and cause permanent damage to the internal circuitry.
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This is often done in the form of a gasket or a plugging cover. While all the Android smartphones had a plug-style solution, which is not necessarily effective, Apple took it to another level. The patent titled ‘Sealed accessories for electronic devices’ was published on Tuesday and will intend to solve this issue through a deformable seal. This seal ensures the port is liquid-tight. The best part is, such a connector will also be in service for accessories that are meant for moist, wet, and dirty environments.
In the patent, there is a mention of utilizing a vacuum generator to secure the port. As per the patent applications from late 2015, the self-heating elastomers was used to cover connectors and ports in order to seal it. However, today Apple has added a new extension to make its devices less vulnerable and more capable in a variety of environments.
Apple has also published a patent for water-resistant speakers and while these changes could come sooner than expected, there is no guarantee that Apple certainly will make this happen in the near future.
Source: USPTO
