’A carbon fiber phone is impossible’

Since Carbon Mobile was founded in 2016, we have faced this comment from almost everyone we’ve spoken to. Industry experts, material scientists and even potential customers.

The reality is, on paper, they have a point.

Despite its advanced properties for creating robust yet lightweight structures, carbon fiber is also an electromagnetic conductor. This means that it has a nasty habit of blocking radio signals, something pretty vital for smartphone production. To be scientifically specific, it creates a Faraday cage where rather than allowing signals through, it disperses them around the outer casing.

The effect is a lot like trying to make a call in an elevator.

However, the incredible potential of carbon fiber in smartphone design was too hard to ignore. Super thin, incredibly light and with unparalleled strength, if we could just find a way to solve the connectivity challenges, we knew we could change tech forever.

Engineering the impossible
We weren’t the first to try. To create a carbon fiber phone, we had to go further than anyone else has before to find new answers.

After 4 years of intense research and development, we created and perfected our revolutionary HyRECM Technology.

HyRECM stands for Hybrid Radio Enabled Composite Material. To enable connected to devices to be produced from carbon fiber, our engineers developed a cutting edge process that fuses carbon fiber with a complementary composite material with signal allowing properties.  

This radical new approach enables devices to be created with a single carbon-fiber based monocoque structure that is incredibly thin, light, robust. When applied in the design of the Carbon 1 MK II, the result is a smartphone that is 33% lighter and 25% thinner than the competition.  

This is just the first step. Carbon Mobile expect HyRECM Technology will drive the sustainable future of electronics. Today, products like the Carbon 1 MK II are made with less than 5% plastic components. In the near future carbon fibers will be replaced with greener bio-based alternatives in development, making the world’s first carbon neutral smartphone a real possibility.

Find out more on Carbon Mobile’s commitment to the future of bio-based tech here.

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