“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…
Related articles:
Liquidmetal ships first amorphous alloy production parts – November 16, 2012
Liquidmetal Technologies Inc. and Materion announce sales channel collaboration – September 7, 2012
Futuristic Liquidmetal alloy could transform Apple products – August 15, 2012
Why did Apple lock in Liquidmetal for two more years? – June 25, 2012
New Apple agreement suggests Liquidmetal iPhone will arrive within two years – June 20, 2012
Apple extends Liquidmetal exclusivity deal through February 2014 – June 19, 2012
Why is Apple investing in equipment and machinery at an exponential rate? – May 23, 2012
Apple’s recent huge investments in plants and equipment for Liquidmetal use in iOS devices, Macs? – May 22, 2012
Apple patent app details new, possibly Liquidmetal-based speakerphone system for iOS devices – May 17, 2012
Apple and Liquidmetal: Don’t go by co-inventor’s word, he hasn’t worked for Liquidmetal since 2007 – May 6, 2012
Liquidmetal inventor: Apple will use it in a ‘breakthrough product’ that will be very difficult to copy – May 2, 2012
Whoa! This Liquidmetal iPhone 5 concept looks real – May 2, 2012
Check out these ultra-thin next-gen Liquidmetal iPhone artist’s concept images – May 1, 2012
Is Apple Inc.’s bet on Liquidmetal about to pay off? – April 30, 2012
Liquidmetal Technologies filing outlines its multimillion dollar agreement with Apple – March 31, 2012
Apple granted its first Liquidmetal patent – January 5, 2011
Apple patent application describes scratch-resistant stainless steel – October 29, 2010
Join the dots on six future Apple technologies – September 22, 2010
Apple already using Liquidmetal in their… – August 17, 2010
Inventor says Liquidmetal may be used for new iPhone antenna – August 13, 2010
How will Apple use their exclusive Liquidmetal alloy? – August 12, 2010
Apple’s exclusive Liquidmetal pact could see future Apple products encased in metallic glass – August 11, 2010
Apple inks deal for exclusive rights to custom, super-durable metal alloy – August 09, 2010
Something is brewing at Apple.
Transparent Aluminum
Has Apple hired Scotty?
Aye Laddie
“Computer?” Oh, how quaint. Pretty fast on the keyboard, considering he was missing a finger.
Lets see Samdung copy this, as Apple has full ownership for electronics.
Just a thought. /a
En
And exclusive rights on Liquidmetal!
But, but, Honor, we did not think the patent was valid.
It is not just the electronics we are looking at here, it is the equipment that makes the equipment!!! In order to copy the product they intend to make, you must first be able to make it,
if you make the equipment to make the product, you have caused an infringement long before making the product! This is a very astute use of patent laws as it invalidates the argument of “I did not willfully infringe the product!”
Just a thought on a thought En!
The Samsung approach will not change, except, instead of copying machined aluminum with plastic, they will copy a metallic glass matrix composite with plastic. It will still be cheap plastic crap.
OBTW, all the predictions of a low cost plastic-backed iPhone are just made up. Apple uses a machined aluminum unibody structure in every product that people carry around.
“Transparent Aluminium?”
Are you completely daft? LiquidMetal is very hard indeed, any type of aluminium is soft and easily damaged by comparison. The frame/antenna of the iPhone is crying out for liquidmetal, instead of aluminium, which is very easily marked.
Clearly you don’t get the reference to Transparent Aluminum and you actually use the work “daft” – Nuff said.
“Transparent Aluminum” is referring to the type of material mentioned in a “Star Trek – The Voyage Home” movie required to transport 2 humpback whales in a Klingon ship back to 24th century. 🙂
I always wondered why they had to use transparent aluminum. Did they have to be able to see the whales in order to transport them?
Excellent point except for one thing, you are quibbling over a movie made by Hollywood for entertainment; sorry but not real. This Apple patent is real and exciting, I can’t wait to see what they do with it.
Though there is nothing transparent in Liquidmetal.
(Picks up mouse to speak into it, as a microphone) “computer…”
Where do you keep the nuclear wessels?
Noooocleeeaaarrrr… WESSELS!
I love that the part of the scene with the cop was ad-libbed!
The latest Apple product, a jet powered back pack ie Rocketman, and Apple is calling it,
the iAAAAAAHHHHHHHH…
I wish we could hear more stories like this about Apple, as opposed to the dreary business and legal blather we usually get.
I just love this news. Appple, get your innovation out the door!
Come on iPhone 5S.
Welllll…. of course historically the “S” series feature mostly internal changes from their predecessors, the S canonically indicating “Speed”.
(I disagree with the whole notion and feel they should’ve taken the opportunity in this latest model to drop the numbers altogether just like the rest of their product lineup, but that’s another story.)
“iPhone 6”, sure that could well feature a new housing or somesuch.
I agree that Apple should start calling the iPhone 5S or 6 just “iPhone.” It would be in keeping with all of their other products. Plus it gets a little unwieldy when you have to start referring to your “iPhone 137S.”
Been waiting for a LQMT pop. Lets make this one a good one, daddy needs a new pair of shoes.
Me too. You knew that those deals would come into play at sometime but it’s taken a bit longer than I thought. Could still be a few products away but usually apple takes its time to get it right. (I said “usually” so please, no Maps comments)
Maps is fine. The whiners don’t remember what Mapquest was like when first introduced, or Google Maps, or…
Most problems stem from the raw data from the supplier. It takes time to find the problems, and those finding them do not report so that others (competitors) can benefit.
A new ‘cast-able’ medium for Ive and the design team to play around with. This could be exciting for the long run.
I’m gonna take a guess and say that this might be applied to any number of unibody applications. I imagine any sort of molding process that might yield a similarly durable chassis would be much more resource efficient than the crazy water lathes they’re using now on the aluminum.
This is what I am talking about. This is how Apple moves the cheese. Everyone else just follows the best they can. Apple wants to make the best product they can. Everyone else just wants to make a buck.
Apple sure is moving that cheese by not having any of their people on the actual patent. =)
What a misuse of word “glass”. This Liquidmetal alloy is amorphous metal, not glass.
Glass is amorphous, but other than that, Liquidmetal has nothing to do with it. So there is no point in use of word “glass” instead of correct word “amorphous” directly, outright.
Amorphous metal is a glass. There are also polymer glasses. A glass is merely an amorphous solid substance which exhibits a glass transition upon cooling. Liquidmetal meets all of these criteria. http://apl.aip.org/resource/1/applab/v63/i17/p2342_s1