The attached image summarizes my points.
I posted another topic on creating a keyboard-replacing cooler module and realized an issue with it was the mid plate acting as a barrier that would reduce its capacity to transport ambient heat to the outside of the laptop. I thought more about it and realized that could be solved if there was no midplate.
I disassembled my laptop and realized that most of the mid plate is actually pretty unnecessary, why do we need it to be 16 screws? why do we need it to cover the entire body? why does it need to intentionally obstruct access to the interior when it honestly ends up just being more of an annoyance than a benefit and so far as I can tell, all of its purposes are met by just reducing the size of the mid plate to the footprint of the mounting frame used to hold the keyboard modules in place. This could be done by just removing the entire top half but it could be further extended to the bottom half as well, separating the mousepad latches into their own pieces after all there is no reason to remove those unless you need to access the battery or the speakers.
I imagine the only downside to reducing the mid plate to this extent would be that the mounting frame would be slightly less rigid with fewer screws in place? but the 6 that secure the middle section seem to me like enough to secure it just fine considering no one is going to be holding their laptop up by the keyboard module itself (without holding the rest of the body of the laptop).
The craziest thing about this is that no additional modification is actually necessary, just reducing the excessive size of the mid plate to just the mounting frame and including some screws that are resized to accommodate the fact that the mid plate is no longer present. Beyond that, future models could just relocate the captive screws from being captive to the mid plate, to being captive to other internal components (like the top vent) or for the sake of backwards compatible components, they can just not be captive screws anymore since we’ll only need to remove them once in a blue moon. This would mean that in the end, the solution only modifies the production of the mid plate, no other modifications are necessary as the screws could just be included in a replacement mid plate kit. (unless the desired solution would modify more than just the mid plate for the sake of having captive screws possibly at the expense of older users needing to buy a few more components if they need a mid plate replacement)
Is there something I’m not seeing here? because it really feels like the only purpose of the mid plate being so big is as an intentionally placed inconvenient obstruction existing purely to increase the amount of effort needed to access the internal bits?
I find that if one completely doesn’t understand the purpose or reason for something, they’re missing something, with only occasional exceptions.
I assume it provides stability of the keyboard, touchpad, input deck. Weren’t there complaints about keyboard flex? Even in pre-release media reviews. And FW introduced pads applied to specific spots to reduce flex. Also, do people really want their keyboard to be extra hot? I normally see people saying hot keyboards are undesired. Perhaps if you’re typing in really cold weather. But most people who can afford a Framework can also afford decent heat where they live and work.
…if you want a hand warmer…then yes, it would be an issue. Otherwise, it’s working as designed.
Also, it serves as an internal heatspreader so you don’t get direct hot spots where the heatpipes are. The mid plate, being a heatspreader is actually allowing the internal airflow to take that heat with it (along with cooling internal components as well). Also improves the polymer stability over the years…with less thermal stresses to break down the keys and switches (e.g. you don’t want brittle keyboard assembly).
I really like the community’s focus on improving!
However, as an occasional gamer, I would expect the WASD part of the keyboard getting scorching hot without the midplate “shielding” it… Worth a try tho! A dremel and some thermal imaging could tell us the truth.
Alternative take: replace the WASD midplate section with proper heatshielding (rubber or other thermal insulation layer). Cut off all the “extra” midplate portions OP showed in the picture. Interesting concept. Will follow the thread.
Being the size it is and having the amount of screws it does, likely increases the rigidity/reduces flex of the body overall. Even though it’s thin, it still has some strength in tension. Because it is anchored in so many places, if the frame were to try to bend/twist, it would have to “stretch” the mid-plate. Without the mid-plate, the lower chassis would likely be less rigid.
And, as mentioned, it also acts as a heat-shield. Likely not as a consequence, but as an intention. It keeps the areas people touch and interact with from getting too hot. It’s not just about comfort and safety, it’s also about regulations. Some countries have rules about the max temperature any external, touchable surface can operate at.
But, those are just guesses. As others have mentioned, it would be interesting to see one modified and then tested for thermals and rigidity.
Considering Framework’s mission, I would say there is virtually zero chance this is the case. With the FW 12, they went with pogo pins on the keyboard specifically to make it easier to access the internals.
Since the input modules all just slide and clip into place, there isn’t a top cover that screws down to provide extra rigidity, like there is on the FW 13 and FW 12. The mid-plate serves instead. And since it is necessarily thin, and since the FW 16 is larger and heavier, there are a lot of screws. That’s the way it seems to me.
that is correct, however, if that is the case then ideally the FW16 should also have those pogo pins for the plate connection, but it doesn’t because its a slightly older design. they chose it on the newer design for the purpose of avoiding that mistake which could be the same case for the aluminum plate, it was at one point intended to serve a purpose and may have been a mistake, perfect example being the deck flex fix using the addition of a thermal pad.
Additionally, I didn’t mean that they intentionally included it as an obstruction maliciously, but as a security measure to prevent non-owners from accessing the internal components, tho that is also achieved by just using screws on the components as is already achieved, but with an additional layer being the plate.
This makes the most sense to me as far as arguments in favor of the plate, but imo that may be able to be resolved by implementing a heat spreader into the keyboard module, not nearly as effective due to the size, but could possibly allow the heat to more easily escape if the case of the keyboard was designed to conduct heat from the bottom to the top, allowing it to direct heat upward and possibly preventing it from getting that hot in the first place (it’d definitely still be warm but if the keys themselves are made to not be thermally conductive then it shouldn’t cause any harm or discomfort to the user unless they intentionally push their hands down onto the keyboard and hold them there for a minute+).
This could also probably be worked into the laptop via the software packages, so that if the keyboard is installed, the laptop will intentionally throttle performance (using a thermometer to track internal heat) to avoid getting too hot, but if the keyboard is removed or a “cooling module” is installed (replacing the keyboard) then it’d release the throttle and allow the heat to release more liberally because it anticipates the heat to be dissipated passively or actively without fear of affecting the user.
This is probably a bit more work than previously but could allow the implementation of much better cooling systems, reduce the size of the mid plate, improve thermal performance, etc without needing a gen2 FW16 body.
That middle plate act as quite a important bit of chassis ridigity, being in tension when the machine bends. Try flexing the chassis with and without the midplate. It’s a big difference.
What you can do is add cutouts for things like SSD.
the SSD is actually underneat the important mounting frame bit that holds the keyboard on so that actually isn’t possible unless they reworked internal layout. unfortunately same for the RAM. generally tho the main issue there is the 16 screws you need to go through to access them. perhaps another solution could be found to stiffen the chassis?
My other thermal solution tho (currently putting together) is an eGPU, theory is that if you bring the main performance load to an external piece of hardware, then all the internal cooling needs to worry about is the CPU, the GPU could still get some use but wouldn’t need to work nearly as hard although that also comes into play with one of my other ideas being a GPU slot PCIe adapter dock, ideally with monitor stand mounting so it could be raised off the desk allowing for more airflow.
yeah just make the thing thicker. The only problem is the device is already quite heavy at over 4 pounds and over 2 kilos without the GPU. Compared to a XPS 9550 it manage to be heavier and have less speaker, though it is larger.
Framework went with a tub chassis and a “inverted” layout which, unfortunately, usually dont offer great chassis stiffness. Because with a traditional layout, you can have “a great slab of aluminum” as your bottom cover, so paired even with a somewhat flimsy top palmrest, have extremely rigid chassis.
But for the modular system, right?
If they triple the thickness of the midplate (which really isnt much) to like, maybe 1/16 inch or 0.75mm, it would probably have huge ridigity, and the keyboard flex will probably go away.
Though it probably also require one or two screw near the center of the device going straight to the bottom chassis.
Right now half the top cover is supported with heatsink, and you are wondering why the 16 have so much thermal paste pump out compared to a regular laptop.
Another aspect that no-one has mentioned is the midplate enclosing the lower chassis section to keep any EMC artifacts inside a metal box so they don’t radiate all over the place and cause failure of FCC tests etc. With a CPU running signals at several GHz to multiple items (any PCIe device, RAM) there are multiple traces attempting to radiate signals.
As an IT person that has taken apart hundreds of laptops and having had 3 FW13s before my current FW16, I can confidently say that the midplate and its screws are an extremely minor inconvenience compared to anything else out there. I’ve probably taken this thing apart a half dozen times in the past year or so and the midplate only takes maybe 2 minutes to remove the screws and 2 minutes to put back, they are captive, perfectly aligned, and make high quality connections compared to most laptops that are closer to putting wood screws in plastic. Nearly any other detail or feature about the 16 should be a higher priority IMHO.
Perhaps if you’re typing in really cold weather. 
But most people who can afford a Framework can also afford decent heat where they live and work.