Apple’s new sapphire plant in Arizona already has the capacity for large-scale sapphire production, according to 9to5Mac. Reported shipping documents note that the plant has already received 518 sapphire furnace and chamber systems, with 420 machines still to be assembled.
The report speculates that more than 103 million 5-inch iPhone displays per year could be made with the furnace systems already in place — but conceivably, any number of sapphire components could be manufactured on a large scale. Considering the plant already has the systems in place, it’s possible that one or more of this year’s new Apple devices could include those sapphire components.
A previous report noted Apple was pushing to open the plant this month to create a “critical new sub-component of Apple products.”
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