Furnaces for sapphire glass production.
The documents reveal that James J. Patton, Apple's Deputy Director of Global Trade Compliance, requested expedited approval from the Foreign-Trade Zone Board to approve two requests that would allow Apple to meet its "aggressive go-live timeline" for February 2014. Recently, both Apple and manufacturing partner, GT Advanced, have been recruiting potential employees.
In addition, the documents show that the sapphire plant would be used for a "critical new sub-component" that would be used in Apple's consumer electronics. Apple currently uses sapphire glass to protect the iPhones' camera lenses and the iPhone 5s' Touch ID home button, though Apple's language in the documents indicates something more could be in the works.
Project Cascade will conduct high-tech manufacturing of intermediate goods/components for consumer electronics. All finished components will be exported. 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. By pulling this process into the U.S., Apple will be using cutting edge, new technology to enhance and improve the consumer products, making them best in class per product type.
While it's not clear what a "new" sub-component could be, Apple could be looking to create full-screen displays made out of sapphire. It could also potentially be used to protect the rumored flexible OLED display on Apple's iWatch.
9to5mac also points to some other materials that will be utilized in the plant, such as diamond cutting wire, which is currently used in iPhone and iPad assembly for creating bezels.
Just a couple days ago, Taiwan's Apple Daily reported the company's assembly partner Foxconn had begun an initial 100 unit run of an iPhone with a sapphire display glass. Last week, an Apple patent application was discovered for an Apple device with a sapphire display glass.
Sapphire has been seen as a potential successor to high-strength glass for display covers, although Corning claims Gorilla Glass 3 is stronger than sapphire glass at a lower cost. Apple has reportedly experimented with sapphire glass displays before, but found them infeasible. It is possible, however, that advances in material and production technology have allowed the company to revisit the possibility.
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