“For Apple fans who like to follow Apple’s every invention relating to Liquidmetal, there are two new inventions that surfaced today,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.
“The first can be found under patent application 20150307967 titled ‘Amorphous Alloy Powder Feedstock Processing,’ of bulk metallic glasses,” Purcher reports. “Both patents cover the use of Liquidmetal in every imaginable Apple product and even hints that the process described in these inventions could produce complete car panels. That makes you wonder if Apple’s Project Titan will be able to take advantage of the liquid metal process for car parts and beyond. For now, it’s at least food for thought.”
“Injection molding is a manufacturing process for producing parts from both thermoplastic and thermosetting plastic materials. Material is fed into a heated barrel, mixed, and forced into a mold cavity where it cools and hardens to the configuration of the cavity,” Purcher reports. “The mold is usually made from metal, usually either steel or aluminum, and precision-machined to form the features of the desired part. Injection molding is widely used for manufacturing a variety of parts, from the smallest component to entire body panels of cars.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Food for thought, indeed.
I estimate that Apple will likely spend on the order of $300 million to $500 million — and three to five years — to mature the technology before it can used in large scale. — Dr. Atakan Peker, one of the Caltech researchers who invented Liquidmetal, May 2012
SEE ALSO:
U.S Patent office reveals four Apple patent applications involving Liquidmetal – October 22, 2015
No Home button? Liquidmetal body? What can we expect from next year’s Apple iPhone 7? – October 19, 2015
New Apple patents show continuing work on Liquidmetal – August 11, 2015
The Turing Phone is not made out of Liquidmetal – July 15, 2015
Why does Apple keep extending their partnership with Liquidmetal? – June 25, 2015
Apple extends Liquidmetal exclusivity deal through February 2016 – June 23, 2015
Two new Liquidmetal patent filings from Apple revealed; list watch and jewelry among potential uses – April 23, 2015
Liquidmetal’s Apple alliance yet to bear fruit – September 30, 2014
Apple’s new Liquidmetal-related patent sparks speculation – July 7, 2014
Apple patents method for embedding sapphire displays in LiquidMetal device chassis – May 27, 2014
Liquidmetal-Visser agreement paves the way for more rapid adoption of amorphous metal manufacturing – May 21, 2014
Apple extends Liquidmetal exclusivity deal through February 2015 – May 21, 2014
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAKE ALL APPLE PRODUCTS OUT OF THIS STUFF!!!
The cost to Apple of developing this technology is peanuts. As with everything else Apple, they’ll release it when they’re ready. In other words when it’s perfect.
Yup, if at some point they find a way to practically use it to do something like mould the entire iPhone body then they’ll likely recoup the investment in one product cycle just from savings on having to cut and shape aluminium.
Would love to see this happen, but it won’t if it can’t give better results than they get from the billet aluminum, as in performance for less $.
I also wonder if this would make a really great chassis frame for an electric vehicle. Easy and quick to manufacture (once the mold is made), strong, and light weight with very good safety properties.
That is a bold statement, 6.5er. Apple sometimes takes steps that are not necessarily the low cost option in the short term. Furthermore, there are a lot of costs to machining tens of millions of iPhone cases from billet aluminum each quarter, in addition to the time required for the machining. The ability to rapidly mold LM parts in near net finish in large volume may go a long way towards offsetting higher LM materials cost. That is in addition to the marketing windfall that Apple would gain from having an exceptionally strong, light, and scratch resistant chassis that is difference from anything offered by Android vendors.
As Tim said:
Revolution on the horizon !
😀👍🏻
The key here is Apple’s willingness to spend years and 10s of billions on specific development of new concepts, when they can ‘imagine’ the benefits way down stream.