“On January 31, 2013, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals new method for fabricating a sheet of metallic glass matrix composite,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“Metallic glass is a form of Liquidmetal,” Purcher reports. “In order to make cool products with this exotic material one must first invent equipment that could properly processes and control it.”
Purcher reports, “Today’s patent relates to sheet casting of metallic glasses, and more particularly to twin roll sheet casting of bulk metallic glasses and composites in an inert environment… Apple credits Douglas Hofmann, Scott Roberts and William Johnston as the inventors of this patent application which was filed in Q2 2012. Douglas Hofmann is the surprise here as he’s not an Apple engineer. No, Hofmann is Materials Scientist and Metallurgist at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Institute of Technology. Yet before working for NASA, Hoffmann worked as a Research and Development Scientist at Liquidmetal Technologies.”
Much more, including Apple’s patent application illustrations and diagrams, in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hmmm…
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