Apple Duo foldable uses AI and 3D printing for precise hinge alignment
Apple has unveiled the Duo, its first foldable smartphone, at its Surprise and Shine event. The device addresses common durability issues in the foldable category by leveraging artificial intelligence and advanced manufacturing techniques. Chief Hardware Officer Johny Srouji explained that AI algorithms are used during production to match each hinge with its optimal housing, ensuring perfect…
Key points
- Apple Duo is the company's first foldable phone, announced at the Surprise and Shine event.
- AI algorithms match hinges to housings for perfect alignment during manufacturing.
- 3D printing adds up to 25 micro-layers of photopolymer to eliminate hinge waviness.
To further enhance structural integrity, Apple employs confocal laser scanning to map the topology of every unit. This data guides a 3D printing process that applies up to 25 micro-layers of custom photopolymer to eliminate residual waviness in the hinge mechanism. The company also introduced a custom nano-texture finish to reduce glare and a multilayer lamination strategy to improve overall durability.
While these innovations aim to solve the wear-and-tear problems that have plagued previous foldables, long-term reliability remains to be tested. The Duo represents Apple’s significant entry into a market where consumer enthusiasm has often outpaced the physical longevity of existing devices.
The hinge for Apple’s new foldable phone was built with AI
TechCrunch AI · 9 September 2026
Duo, Apple’s long-awaited foldable phone announced at the company’s Surprise and Shine event on Wednesday, contains a number of surprises, including a critical hinge that was designed and built with the help of AI and 3D printing.
The new phone represents Apple’s first entry into the foldable phone genre — a category of devices that has seen significant consumer enthusiasm but whose form factors haven’t always lived up to the hype. As you might expect from a product that, by design, undergoes twice as much wear as a traditional device, most foldables suffer significant degradation and don’t have the durability of other smartphones.
Apple claims that it has integrated innovative protections into the Duo’s design to keep the phone from falling prey to the typical wear and tear associated with foldables. That includes the hinge, according to Johny Srouji, the company’s chief hardware officer.
“During manufacturing, we use AI algorithms to precisely match each individual hinge with its best-fit housing to ensure perfect alignment, and a confocal laser progressively scans the topology of every single unit and 3D prints up to 25 micro layers of a custom photopolymer to eliminate residual waviness,” Srouji said during Wednesday’s event.
Srouji also shared that Apple gave the foldable phone “a custom nano-texture finish that significantly reduces glare and reflections,” as well as a multilayer lamination strategy designed to increase the device’s durability. Of course, it remains to be seen whether those protections will be enough to keep the Duo in peak physical condition in the long run.
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