If you’ve ever had an iPhone Lightning cable in your car, you already know how fragile they are. Apple can now have a solution that could protect any kind of cable.
Apple will never say that Lightning cables have a death wish, but it has approached in a newly disclosed patent application that really refers to fixing the problem. “Variable stiffness cable” does not once mention Lightning, nor does it say anything that comes close to the word “torn.”
“It is well known that bending the cable near the end point can cause unwanted stress on the wire connections, which can lead to cable damage,” he admits. “Consequently, it is customary to provide a tension sleeve made of a rigid material around the end area of the cable.”
Apple’s descriptions apply to many types of cables, as do its critiques of current solutions.
“The rigid material creates a localized increase in the bending strength of the cable, thus reducing the tension on the wire connections,” he continues. “In addition to making the cable stiffer locally, the anti-tension sleeve also makes the cable thicker at the ends. In some cases, the added thickness may not be desired.”
If you’ve used Apple equipment long enough, you can remember how Apple slightly thickened the Lightning cables. It probably meant they were a little less prone to damage. As a side effect, it meant that sometimes it no longer falls into the channels processed in iPhone stands by third-party manufacturers.
Apple’s new proposal is to develop both the idea of ”voltage reduction” and additional cable thickening. “A cable may include a cable core surrounded by an outer sleeve of uniform thickness,” says the patent application.
“[It further has] a first longitudinal section having a first stiffness (eg corresponding to a flexible cable), a second longitudinal section having a second stiffness (eg corresponding to a rigid cable) and a third longitudinal section between the first and second longitudinal sections, “says Apple.
Detail of the patent application showing a combination of cable layers and protective coating
The first cable has a certain degree of unspecified stiffness, while the second is stiffer. And “the rigidity of the third longitudinal section varies between the first rigidity and the second rigidity”. Indeed, what this is doing is extending the “cable strain.”
Most patent applications describe different possible materials and also try to define rigidity. “For example, the minimum bending radius, defined as the smallest radius at which the cable can be bent without a doubt, is a well-known measure of cable stiffness,” says Apple, “and a minimum bending radius can be defined in the report with cable diameter. ”
“The increase in bending radius corresponds to the increasing rigidity. Depending on the special design of the cable, the minimum bending radius can be, for example, 8 to 12 times the diameter of the cable,” he continues.
The patent application is credited to seven inventors, including Christopher S. Graham. His previous work includes patents on “shielding multi-coil wireless power transfer systems” and “wrapped enclosures for electronic devices”.