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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc.

AAPL 278.28

+0.1%

Dec 12 9:30 AM EST

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To: lucky_limey who wrote (166468)	2/25/2014 11:02:30 PM
From: Doren	Read Replies (2) of 213176

> Everyone has been waiting for a serious Liquid Metal anything... Lots of things are currently made from LM. > Maybe Apple bought it and killed it to deny others the technology... Exactly the opposite. Apple paid to keep them alive. $200 million. And they haven't gotten much from that so far. If you understand the technology potential and the problems realizing it you would be... better informed. I don't think its a done deal yet. But I have no doubt that Jonathan Ive drools when he imagines what Apple could do with LM phones etc. Apple passionately desires to use the material. > I had no idea that thermal expansion is such a big problem.... maybe on CPU's of heavy duty computers but on micro electronics? Excuse me for saying, can you read? The thermal expansion problem is a problem on large sapphire screens. If you bond it to something that expands at a different rate under heat, the bond breaks. Its an attachment problem. Apple has a patent on a way to cope with it. Heat and thermal conductivity have always been problems with microprocessors. In addition LM can be both lighter than titanium and at the same time much harder and more scratch resistant than steel. It can also take holographs and can come in multiple colors. > Where do people get this stuff... Technological curiosity about the future. LM's biggest hurdle is developing injection molding machines. That's due to the heat and low viscosity of the alloys and the cooling rate which as far as I know has to be pretty rapid at this point. Its an engineering problem that will be solved eventually. The alloys themselves are incredible, there's no question about that. Its just a question of being able to make a lot of parts efficiently. The use of titanium did not happen overnight either. In fact Aluminum used to be more precious than gold or platinum. That's why the Washington monument's tip is Aluminum. Eventually someone figured it out how to make Aluminum cost effectively: en.wikipedia.org Aluminum, nor any normal metal cannot be molded accurately due to shrinkage. That's why so many metal parts have to be machined, like all Apple's cases. Think about the economic ramifications of aluminum, titanium and injection molding on our society. Engle which is one of the partners in the race to perfect LM injection molding, is a world leader in injection molding with many patents. Injection molding is pretty complex if you look into it. Engle developed a spinning injection mold among other things. Not saying its going to happen, but if it does it WILL be a big thing.

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