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Apple-Liquidmetal Collaboration Awarded Patent on Process for Mass Production of Amorphous Metals
Back in 2010, Apple signed an agreement with Caltech spinoff Liquidmetal Technologies, giving Apple exclusive access to the firm's unique metal alloys for consumer electronics applications. Liquidmetal's "amorphous metal alloys", sometimes referred to as "metallic glass" due to their non-crystalline molecular structures, offer several advantages over many other metals, including superior strength and durability. Apple had quietly tested Liquidmetal by using it in the SIM card eject tool for the iPhone 3G, but the material has yet to make any additional appearances in Apple's products.
The agreement between Apple and Liquidmetal funneled the covered intellectual property through a subsidiary known as Crucible Intellectual Property, LLC, and Liquidmetal is required to submit all of its newly developed intellectual property to that subsidiary through at least February 2014.
As pointed out by MacDailyNews, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office yesterday issued a patent assigned to Crucible covering processes for mass producing thin sheets of amorphous metal alloys, suggesting that Apple and Liquidmetal are indeed making progress with the material. Of the five inventors listed on the patent, which was filed in May 2012, two are Apple product design engineers and three are engineers at Liquidmetal Technologies.
Rumors of Liquidmetal's alloys being used for Apple's iPhone have surfaced a number of times, but last year Liquidmetal's Atakan Peker noted that Apple was unlikely to use the alloys as major design materials for at least 2-4 years due to the production scale needed for such parts as MacBook casings. With yesterday's patent, however, it does appear that Apple and Liquidmetal may have developed processes to overcome that hurdle.
The agreement between Apple and Liquidmetal funneled the covered intellectual property through a subsidiary known as Crucible Intellectual Property, LLC, and Liquidmetal is required to submit all of its newly developed intellectual property to that subsidiary through at least February 2014.
As pointed out by MacDailyNews, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office yesterday issued a patent assigned to Crucible covering processes for mass producing thin sheets of amorphous metal alloys, suggesting that Apple and Liquidmetal are indeed making progress with the material. Of the five inventors listed on the patent, which was filed in May 2012, two are Apple product design engineers and three are engineers at Liquidmetal Technologies.
A conventional method for making a BMG [bulk metallic glass] sheet requires casting a amorphous metal alloy at or above the melting temperature of the amorphous metal alloy, freezing the molten amorphous metal alloy in a sheet mold to form a sheet, and then using a cutting tool to remove the gate portion of the cast sheet and shape the cast sheet into the desired final geometry. However, casting requires melting and cooling of the amorphous metal alloy in a sheet mold, and this can cause uncontrolled amount of amorphicity in the BMG sheet. Furthermore, the post-processing cost for removing the gate and runner overflow and shaping the cast sheet into the desired final sheet geometry can be quite high. Therefore, new methods for making BMG sheets that overcome the above mentioned limitations of the casting process are desirable. [...]The patent describes how molten BMG could be continuously poured onto a shallow bath of molten tin, where it would flow to form a sheet. The thickness of the sheets would be controlled by the speed at which cooling BMG is removed from the tin bath. The patent specifically claims that such a float plant could operate continuously for 10-15 years, producing approximately 6,000 kilometers of BMG per year in thicknesses ranging from 0.1 mm to 25 mm and widths up to 3 meters.
A proposed solution according to embodiments herein for the manufacture of bulk-solidifying amorphous sheets is to use a float glass process and/or a conveyor belt-type process.
Rumors of Liquidmetal's alloys being used for Apple's iPhone have surfaced a number of times, but last year Liquidmetal's Atakan Peker noted that Apple was unlikely to use the alloys as major design materials for at least 2-4 years due to the production scale needed for such parts as MacBook casings. With yesterday's patent, however, it does appear that Apple and Liquidmetal may have developed processes to overcome that hurdle.
Tag: patent
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80 months ago
Sweet. I anxiously await the day when I can drop my iPhone and it splatters into a liquidmetal puddle only to slowly reform back into an iPhone a la the T1000. Make it happen, Apple :cool:
Only, Samsung's cheap knockoff version will likely be mercury and end up killing half its owners.
Don't worry. Samsung will make a watch out of liquidmetal soon enough.
Only, Samsung's cheap knockoff version will likely be mercury and end up killing half its owners.
80 months ago
It is really sad that Apple has taken control of this technology and yet has given the public nothing to show for it.
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Aluminum both dents easily and scratches easily. It is a cheap crappy material. That is why it is used in soda cans, but, with a few exceptions, is not commonly used in things that need to be durable.
Yeah... good thing its not used in anything else... like boats, trailers, fuel efficient or electric car bodies, airplanes, or space station modules ...
80 months ago
It is also used in cookwear, due to its ability to conduct heat. It is also light weight, accounting for the uses you recount.
But in everyday life, it is mostly used for things like "tin" foil and "tin" cans. It is rarely used for things that need to stay shiny and nice but which are handled frequently. That is why it was such a huge mistake for Apple to use it for the casing of a phone. If the iPhone were made of a durable material, there would be little need to put the product's case inside an additional outer case. People do that because the aluminum srcatches and dents easily - no surprise there.
Aluminum is pretty much never used for jewelry. That is because it scratches and dents easily, and does not feel good in the hand.
Right. I work in and my father owns a sheetmetal factory. So we work with metals every single day. You couldn't be any more clueless. We do a lot of military contracts, as well as some commercial projects. You know the airplane flight recorder boxes? Yea, those things that are designed to withstand a plane crash? Guess what they're made from. Aluminum. About 75% of the work we do is from a particular aluminum alloy that is very hard/dense.
Anyone who works with metals knows there are different thicknesses, hardness, strengths to an alloy. Aluminum could be a 5000 series, 6000 series, etc. I love how you lump all aluminum together into one basket and pretend to know what you're talking about.
80 months ago
Don't worry. Samsung will make a watch out of liquidmetal soon enough.
Are you claiming that Samsung would copy a technology to which Apple owns the patents? Surely they wouldn't do that.
80 months ago
Don't worry. Samsung will make a watch out of liquidmetal soon enough.
Definitely. Be careful, though; all we need is one analyst to pull out a rumour about a liquidmetal iCyborg, and Samsung will come out with this:
TL;DR: Samsung=Skynet? :eek:
80 months ago
Aluminum both dents easily and scratches easily. It is a cheap crappy material. That is why it is used in soda cans, but, with a few exceptions, is not commonly used in things that need to be durable.
Wow, it must be extremely self fulfilling to be a clueless expert, knowing nothing about what your talking about, but being so extremely self assured. Don't let Boeing, LandRover, Mercedes, Audi, Lamborghini, Ferrari, know about your recent discoveries in the subpar quality of aluminum, all there world class products may crumble like a tin can. If you have no clue what your talking about, don't pretend like you have any insight. The patent looks like it was granted by an 18yr old. Typical steel mill machinery that has existed for the last 70+ years all metals are liquid at the point prior to cooling and annealing, can't wait for Mittal to challenge sue/invalidate the patent. I wonder at which point in time Apple will apply for patenting the wheel.
80 months ago
So, why do they want to make large sheets of this material? I thought one of the advantages of Liquid Metal is that it can be molded into complex shapes eliminating the need to machine it. Are they going to cut up these sheets and then machine them into product? Were they not able to figure out how to mold large complex pieces? Or, is this just something they figured out how to do so they figured they might as well patent it?
The advantage is that the metal can be pressed and injection molded into intricate shapes that are light weight and reasonably scratch resistant. The sheet metal can be pressed into shapes like phone cases eliminating the need for costly machining processes that are used in manufacturing out of aluminum blocks. It's basically a cross between metal and glass and previously has been difficult to make and impossible on an industrial scale such as this.
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