Apple Filed New Patent Application "Electronic Device With Hidden Connector" Uses Self-Healing Elastomers to Weatherproof iPhone Connectors

The Apple filed new patent application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, USPTO was discovered by AppleInsider. The company filed a patent last year, but it has not been assigned yet. The application describes a technology "Electronic Device with Hidden Connector" uses self-healing elastomers to weatherproof iPhone connectors to protect terminals on the iPhone from water or dust. 

Through the gates covering it with a self-healing elastomer could connect their headphones for example, users by puncturing the material. When removing the headphones it should restore the material itself again and hide connector ports.

For the construction of the self-healing material would like to make Apple's use of material based on conventional polymers. They would after penetration, for example through a headphone jack or a data cable, at least 90 percent of the initial strength should recover. However, how this translates into sustainability in the longer term is not clear. Apple calls in the patent application, however, a number of different ways of processing the self-healing elastomer in iPhones, which indicates that the company is still considering how to exactly implement the technology.

By making use of the materials described in the patent application, it should be possible to make a water resistant iPhone. Or Apple working on it also is not clear; Not all technologies where patent-pending final processed products. However, there were earlier rumors suggesting that Apple has a waterproof iPhone in the pipeline.

Several companies have made water-resistant smartphones, but in many cases, the material must be the connection ports protected against water or dirt to be removed manually. As the technology used in Apple's new patent application, that would be no longer necessary.