Apple plans to open its new sapphire glass plant in Mesa, Arizona sometime next month. Reports indicate that "critical new sub-components" for the iPhone 6 and future iPads will be produced at the factory. A leaked patent shows that the new component could be the rumored solar sapphire glass display for the iPhone 6.
Apple announced that it planned to open the new Mesa sapphire glass plant in November and since then, the speed of construction has rapidly increased. GT Technologies and Apple will run the factory's operations together to manufacture sapphire glass for future Apple products. Up until now, very little was known about Apple's plans for the Mesa factory.
Today, the Foreign Trade Zones Board released documents that reveal when the new factory will open, its purpose and Apple's demands that the factory's construction be expedited. The documents include the correspondence between U.S. Foreign Trade Zone officials and Apple's Deputy Director of Global Trade Compliance, James Patton. In one letter, Patton describes Apple's plans to open the sapphire glass plant before the end of February as "aggressive" and asks that the approval process be "expedited" so that Apple can achieve its "go-live" date goal for the plant.
If the Mesa factory opens in February, Apple could begin manufacturing more high-tech sapphire glass components almost immediately. Apple is intent on a February launch because the sooner the factory opens, the sooner those "critical" components will be ready for the iPhone 6 and future iPads. Although the new sapphire glass plant could very easily just manufacture the fingerprint sensor's glass cover and the camera's glass, one of the documents from Apple indicates that the company has found a new purpose for sapphire glass.
"This high-tech manufacturing process will create a critical new sub-component of Apple Products to be used in the manufacture of the consumer electronics that will be imported and then sold globally," Apple explained in the document.
This "critical new sub-component" could very well be none other than the oft-rumored solar-powered sapphire glass display for the iPhone 6. Two new patents showing a method for polishing large panels of sapphire glass--called "sapphire windows" in the document--and another for a more sensitive touchscreen display.
If Apple plans to use sapphire glass displays on its iPhone 6, the push to open the new Mesa plant by February makes perfect sense. In order to manufacture the vast amount of sapphire iPhone 6 displays needed to meet consumer demand for the latest and greatest iPhone, Apple needs all the time it can get. Recently Apple has run into problems because the manufacturing process of vital components like the Touch ID fingerprint sensor and iPad Mini retina display were delayed.
