Apple continues exploring Liquidmetal manufacturing methods

2»

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 31
    nolamacguy wrote: »
    hahahah, youre hilarious. so glad you can deduce all of that from my pointing out that its *features* that matter, not whether or not apple "hurries up and uses Liquid Metal, already!" such statements miss the point of apple -- they dont build products around specs, they build products around features. this is why Ives has no problem using plastic, despite how many fanboys got their panties in a bunch over the perceived "cheapness" of the material.

    thats my point, and you missed it. features, not materials.

    ill just continue my life as a pathetic, woefully ignorant software developer reading tech articles every day for years on end, being lead around like a....wait, what? a DUCT?

    Look, I understand being irritated by a "trending" phrase that no one ever seems to stop talking about. iTV anyone? But to imply that that new materials like Liquidmetal offer no new "features" and are, therefore, unworthy of our interest is not only ignorant, but absurdly inaccurate.

    Materials may have no significance to you, but they obviously are significant to Apple for them to have invested tens of millions into this tech. Probably much more. This makes Liquidmetal interesting. I seriously doubt Apple would even bother unless it offered Some benefit over the materials used in their current products. Unless of course you're implying that Apple is counting solely on the name "Liquidmetal" to sell their upcoming product line.

    Your opinion has been noted. Repeatedly... across multiple threads. Your disinterest in materials is Abundantly clear. Now, for everyone's sake, please Prove how little you care.
  • Reply 22 of 31
    shogun wrote: »

    Induction charging should be all that's necessary to create a device that is waterproof, scratch proof, break proof, light, strong, and beautiful.

    ...AND bounces back into your hands if dropped!
  • Reply 23 of 31
    drive23drive23 Posts: 7member

    I disagree.  There's no point in patenting it if you never intend to release it to the public.  Whether they actually do is another matter i suppose. 

  • Reply 24 of 31
    quinneyquinney Posts: 2,528member
    nolamacguy wrote: »

    ill just continue my life as a pathetic, woefully ignorant software developer reading tech articles every day for years on end, being lead around like a....wait, what? a DUCT?

    That's wrong. It's "why a duck?"
  • Reply 25 of 31
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacJello View Post

     

    Apologies for repeating myself, but the first time I posted the links below they were buried on the second page of comments, and I doubt they got noticed. I believe they contain some of the most exciting info and speculation one will find about Apple and/or Liquidmetal, not to mention sapphire. These links originally appeared back in March in the comment section of an article on Seeking Alpha. I'm astonished that more people haven't taken note. I'm reposting because it seems to me that this is exactly the sort of thing many people come here to read.

     

    http://bit.ly/1e5GRpF

    http://bit.ly/1gHQU68

    http://bit.ly/1hjNP9B

     

    The author of these posts points out that Apple's own patents make the case that amorphous metals offer many benefits above and beyond durability and weight. These even include cost savings with respect to assembly.  

     

    One of the most interesting ideas is noted in the third post: Liquidmetal announced in late 2013 that it had partnered with Engel, the company that makes the injection molding equipment used for the iPhone 5c. Apparently the very same equipment can be retrofitted to use Liquidmetal. Can this really be a coincidence?  

     

    Given Jony Ive's recent comment about new materials in products this fall, it's hard not to believe that we're going to see some use of amorphous metal. What else would he be referring to, just sapphire?  

     

    Perhaps it's a bit too soon to see a full amorphous metal/sapphire phone, but could there be a better combination for a watch?


     

    Thank you for re-posting this MacJello. If all this is true I really need to get some stock in LM. What is really interesting, from this link http://www.techinsighter.com/blog/2014/2/24/sapphire-liquidmetal-the-ultimate-combination, is Apple is pretty much ready to go, they have all the equipment they need... This is exciting stuff.

     

    Apple has started to get pretty creative with secrecy :) I can't wait to see what is coming very soon.

     

    Edit: corrected link in text.

  • Reply 26 of 31
    flaneurflaneur Posts: 4,526member
    macjello wrote: »
    Apologies for repeating myself, but the first time I posted the links below they were buried on the second page of comments, and I doubt they got noticed. I believe they contain some of the most exciting info and speculation one will find about Apple and/or Liquidmetal, not to mention sapphire. These links originally appeared back in March in the comment section of an article on Seeking Alpha. I'm astonished that more people haven't taken note. I'm reposting because it seems to me that this is exactly the sort of thing many people come here to read.

    <a href="http://bit.ly/1e5GRpF" style="color:rgb(87,159,196);margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1e5GRpF</a>;

    <a href="http://bit.ly/1gHQU68" style="color:rgb(87,159,196);margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1gHQU68</a>;

    <a href="http://bit.ly/1hjNP9B" style="color:rgb(87,159,196);margin:0px;padding:0px;vertical-align:baseline;" target="_blank">http://bit.ly/1hjNP9B</a>;


    The author of these posts points out that Apple's own patents make the case that amorphous metals offer many benefits above and beyond durability and weight. These even include cost savings with respect to assembly.  

    One of the most interesting ideas is noted in the third post: Liquidmetal announced in late 2013 that it had partnered with Engel, the company that makes the injection molding equipment used for the iPhone 5c. Apparently the very same equipment can be retrofitted to use Liquidmetal. Can this really be a coincidence?  

    Given Jony Ive's recent comment about new materials in products this fall, it's hard not to believe that we're going to see some use of amorphous metal. What else would he be referring to, just sapphire?  

    Perhaps it's a bit too soon to see a full amorphous metal/sapphire phone, but could there be a better combination for a watch?

    Very interesting post and links, thanks much. The idea of molding metallic glass around sapphire sounds so Ive-ish. Not to mention the team of far out materials science types something like this would attract. Boundary layers, that's where it's at. Apple is an innovation machine based on the way things fit together, including how their things fit into their users' lives,
  • Reply 27 of 31
    dftabmdftabm Posts: 4member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by drandall View Post

    <...>

    Liquidmetal is half the weight of aluminum and twice the strength of titanium.

    <....>


     

    No, it isn't.

     

    500g is half the weight of 1kg, this statement has as much meaning as your first assertion. Nor does LM have half the density of Al, LM is far denser than Al.

     

    Compared to Ti 6AI-4V (which is outperformed by advanced steels), LM has c. 1.4 the specific strength (aka strength/weight ratio) and 0.33 the impact strength. The first is hardly shattering, the second may well be for an LM part.

     

    These are LM's own figures.

     

    imho LM's benefit is the ability to precision cast components with reasonable properties, i.e. lower cost of manufacture in certain applications, it's fatigue performance rules it out for many purposes, not suitable for everything, but it's got a niche.

  • Reply 28 of 31
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    flaneur wrote: »
    Very interesting post and links, thanks much. The idea of molding metallic glass around sapphire sounds so Ive-ish. Not to mention the team of far out materials science types something like this would attract. Boundary layers, that's where it's at. Apple is an innovation machine based on the way things fit together, including how their things fit into their users' lives,

    It is very interesting but doesn't solve the "ship in the bottle" problem. That is how do you get your electronics inside the assembly? I would consider this more interesting than the molding together of the two parts which really isn't a huge advance for the injection molding industry. The question then becomes this, are the electronics already bonded to the screen before injection? Or is there a sub chassis involved and a simple band bonded to the sub chassis and screen.

    So yeah interesting read and speculation but he totally ignores how one would put the guts into the machine (iPhone, Touch, iWatch or iWhatever).

    By the way I did find it interesting as to how they intend to inject the metal. This is much different than most metal injection or plastic injection molding techniques
  • Reply 29 of 31
    drandalldrandall Posts: 13member
    The claim that LM is twice as strong as titanium comes directly from their website. They say this...

    "Liquidmetal Alloy is stronger than high-strength titanium, with a yield strength of 1640 MPa (238 KSI). High-strength titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) has a yield strength of 830 Mpa (120 ksi) and an ultimate tensile strength of only 900 Mpa (130 ksi)"

    As for weight vs aluminum....I really thought it was lighter, but going back to the LM website I haven't found anything to substantiate that. So I'm wrong there.

    Still, it's a fascinating material and I hope apple can put it to good use.
  • Reply 30 of 31
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    I wonder what effect Liquidmetal has on radio signals? Since it is denser than aluminum, although lighter, would the phone radio antennas need to be reconfigured?
  • Reply 31 of 31
    lightknightlightknight Posts: 2,312member
    Wonderful work. Don't forget that all the work that Apple does here with the LiquidMetal guys is reusable by them for any non-tech-industry related uses, such as, Space Race, Lifesaving rovers, farm drones or whatever else.

    I foresee here tremendous improvements to life quality in the future.
Sign In or Register to comment.