World’s Most Advanced Machinery Was Reason For Apple’s Liquidmetal Deal, Expert Says

By Leander Kahney (4:00 am, Aug 25 2010)

Buhler's prototype Liquidmetal casting machine is called the most advanced in the world. This is a similar die-casting machine made by the same company.

Apple’s recent deal with Liquidmetal Technologies will give it access to the most advanced manufacturing machinery on the planet, one insider says.

Apple will soon start experimenting with a new prototype injection molding machine, says Drew Merkel, who is perhaps the most knowledgeable third-party expert on Liquidmetal Technologies. It may allow Apple to make advanced iPhone antennas and seamless gadget cases with holographic logos cast right into the metal.

“This is the most advanced injection-molding machine ever made,” Merkel says. “It is state-of-the-art.”

Apple recently licensed Liquidmetal Technology’s IP for use in consumer electronics. Liquidmetal Technologies is one of the leading companies trying to commercialize space-age metal alloys that are extremely hard and lightweight but can be processed as easily as plastics. NASA has said Liquidmetal is “poised to redefine materials science as we know it in the 21st century.”

This aerospace part is a one-piece casting from Liquidmetal, which if made traditionally would have required several manufacturing steps. Image courtesy of Drew Merkel.

Liquidmetal’s prototype machine was made by BulhlerPrince of Holland, Michigan, a division of Switzerland’s Bulher Group. It was designed with the help of Dr. Bill Johnson of Caltech, the co-inventor of Liquidmetal and one of the co-founders of the company. Dr. Johnson didn’t respond to several requests for comment.

There is only one prototype, Merkel says, although he predicted Apple will order more. It is currently located in a factory in Korea.

The part in the picture above is a good example of the machine’s capabilities. Made for the aerospace industry, if it had been manufactured traditionally, it would have undergone several rounds of cutting, milling, drilling, threading, deburring, routing and sandblasting, Merkel said.

Instead, the part was cast in one operation and requires no further processing.

“The cost savings are tremendous,” Merkel said. “This is truly a fantastic representation of the complex design which can be fabricated and ready to go in minutes.”

In addition, there are the capabilities of Liquidmetal itself. The alloys, also known as bulk metallic glasses, are as strong as titanium but use only one-third of the material. It can be mixed with very small amounts of precious metals to make jewelry-like finishes, or optimized for functions such as an antenna. And while titanium scratches and magnesium corrodes, Liquidmetal is scratch and corrosion proof, and resistant to greasy marks.

“You get fingerprints all over them and they just disappear,” Merkel says. “You could add gold or silver to get a beautiful look you’ve never seen before.”

Merkel, who lives in Diamond Bar, Calif., near Los Angeles, is a major investor in Liquidmetal Technologies. A former executive from the steel and plastics industries, Merkel is perhaps the most knowledgeable expert on the company. Merkel invested about $1 million in Liquidmetal — his entire net worth — and watched in horror as the stock price plunged and his investment dwindled to about $55,000. He was so concerned about the company, he drove to its headquarters every month for years, just to check the lights were still on.

“I wanted to make sure they were paying their bills,” he says.

Merkel also kept the detailed and voluminous Liquidmetal Advocate blog, documenting the company’s ups and downs. ”I read everything and I talked to every employee and investor and analyst out there.”

The company’s future looks much brighter after signing the licensing deal with Apple, which is reportedly worth at least $11 million and ongoing licensing fees. Merkel hopes the company’s stock will rise from its current $0.55 to $50.

In addition to the prototype injection molding machine, Liquidmetal already has 24 die casting machines, also manufactured by Buhler.

The 24 die-casting machines, however, aren’t as precise as the injection molding machine, nor as efficient.

These machines are manually operated. Each requires its own operator. Merkel says the machines are “incredibly inefficient” and the reject rates are high. (Apple nonetheless used the machines to make the only Liquidmetal part it has sourced in a shipping product: the SIM card ejection tool that comes with iPhones and maybe iPads)

The prototype injection molding machine, on the other hand, is a CNC machine and largely automated. One operator can control two machines, which are five times more efficient, Merkel says. It is also much more consistent, producing few reject parts.

It relies on a very precise cooling mechanism. The molten alloy must cool uniformly or will become brittle.

The machine is big enough to make four or five devices the size of an iPad, or a frame for large-screen TV that would be only one-eight an inch thick — but still be rigid and strong.

“In electronics, thinner is always better, and these won’t bend or crack,” Merkel says.

And because Liquidmetal parts don’t need to be machined or polished, they provide savings in manufacturing time and costs. Several steps are reduced to one.

According to Merkel, Liquidmetal has been making prototypes for Apple at least a couple of years, including gadget cases and chassis, and parts like bezels for screens.

“They have been working with Apple for a long time,” says Merkel. “They were making prototypes, trying to land a big fish.”

This was the company’s business model: make free prototypes for prospective customers to win their business. The company made golf clubs which had to be withdrawn because they shattered. An early formulation of the alloy became brittle after use.

“They spent $50 million on gold clubs that weren’t ready to go to market,” he says. “They were making everything and anything for anybody. They were giving it away.”

But with Apple, it worked. Merkel expects Apple to invest in new machinery and factories. He thinks Jonathan Ive, Apple’s head designer, who has a reputation for pioneering new materials and manufacturing techniques, is driving the Liquidmetal deal.

“Jonny Ive is probably the number one mover in the Liquidmetal concept,” he says. “Apple must believe in the technology because the company has been flaky for years. They kept refinancing and refinancing and sometimes couldn’t make payroll. The company has been broke for years. This shows how dramatic a deal this is, that Apple would invest in a company that’s quite flaky.”

Neither Apple nor Liquidmetal responded to requests for comment.

A Buhler cold-chamber die casting machine, similar to Liquidmetal's machines that Apple now has access to.

22 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by Leander Kahney.

Posted in Apple, News, Top stories |

http://www.pendleproducts.com martin_tf
Another interesting article on Liquidmetal. I agree with the article that Ive is the man driving this deal. He always seems to be one of those really hands on designers that is as much is not more focussed on the engineering side of the design than simply making it look pretty and then worrying about the science later. He must have some big ideas for this stuff.
Oluseyi
Great reporting, Leander. Merkel sounds very credible, given his non-hype take on things despite the fact that hype is obviously in his financial interest. As a colleague of mine put it, “Engineering triumphs over epic business fail. Rare story.”
http://thebigappleblog.com David
I can’t wait to see what Jonathan Ive does with this, his designs are already so beautiful.
Simon
The manufacturing company is called Bühler Group (or Buhler Group).
http://tekunoloji.com Ballmer Schmidt Jobs
@ David, yea, I can’t wait to see Ives and his materials at work again. :D
http://mackeeper.zeobit.com/ MacKeeper_Fan_Modua
“The cost savings are tremendous”
Naturally this wont be reflected in a products price I suspect.
Alex K
Apple will extend its already formidable lead over the competition in industrial design with Liquidmetal. Apple is always a step or two ahead and this will help make it more like 3 or 4 steps. Seriously, does anyone think Dell or HP or even Samsung would look into something like this?
http://www.none.com phil
Get real, folks. This is not gonna happen. Apple sells iPhone by the millions, so maintaining their supply chain is absolutely critical. There’s no way Apple can risk the supply chain on one company that has never produced reliable products in large volumes.
And LQMT has just one advanced machine! This is just silly. Cool technology, but just silly.
http://www.appfreakblog.com appfreak
Omega, the watch maker, is using Liquidmetal for bonding it with other materials creating a single piece where the different colours are noticeable (numbers on a bezel)
I wonder if future designs could use this technique as well
(There’s a very Applesque video on Omega’s website about it http://www.omegawatches.com/spirit/watchmaking/liquidmetal)
Parag Lohiya
LIQUIDMETAL® ALLOYS COMBINE OVER TWICE THE STRENGTH OF TITANIUM WITH THE PROCESSING EFFICIENCY OF PLASTICS TO CREATE THE 3RD REVOLUTION. – Nasa
Lindsey Vonn wins Olympic Gold with HEAD/Liquidmetal Skis – http://www.head.com
Parag Lohiya
CUSTOMIZED LIQUIDMETAL® USB FLASH DRIVES – Sandisk Just to add more
This liquid has long to go I guess.
westech
@phil Manufacturing efficiency will come if there are unique uses which will take advantage of liquid metal’s properties. Manufacturing costs will come down ca 15% for every doubling of total product history.
I wish I knew more about the properties of the stuff. Hardness, tensile properties, impact and abrasion resistance, density, etc. These would define what it could be used for, and what volumes to expect.
Duane
This isn’t about LQMT having one machine – it is about buying and locking out competitors through intellectual property rights and patents. It will help maintain Apple’s margin while everyone else is spinning their buffing wheels trying to match the styling.
Peter G.
Liquidmetal is good stuff, even great in the right applications, but it’s just crazy talk to say that it can’t be scratched. It’s only 50% harder than ordinary stainless steel, softer than the grits used on commercial sandpaper (such as aluminum oxide).
One might say that Liquidmetal won’t be scratched in ordinary use, but that depends on your definition of ordinary.
I got a kick out of the 404 error caused by the inadvertant inclusion of the close-parenthesis in that link to the Omega site– George Clooney squinting through a jeweler’s loupe with a crazy headband. :-)
http://www.none.com phil
I suspect this story and others like it are aimed at pumping LQMT’s stock price. Don’t fall for it. LQMT has some cool technology, but it’s not a business.
LQMT has been around for many years. In that time, they’ve developed metallic glass varieties with special properties. But production volumes, costs, and quality control have been, and continue to be, major problems. And every new part requires special engineering tooling and development to control processing and temperatures, which are very sensitive and critical.
Apple simply won’t risk their supply chain on something as shaky as this. If you recall the old Apple, they had many problems meeting product demand, and it really hurt their image and bottom line.
If Jonathan Ive wants to find himself on the unemployment line, then he should take this risk. In other words, it ain’t gonna happen.
JL
Yeah, because Apple has made so many ill-thought-out decisions, which yielded punishing losses, based upon hastilly-taken risks. How else did they become the second largest US company, surpassing WalMart, IBM, HP, and even Microsoft? Time to chime the death-knell for beleagured Apple! Hell if they wanted to, Apple could buy LQMT with the loose change hiding under Steve’s tatami mats, or he could shake out some coin left over from his soy-milk lattes from the water jug he throws it in.
You can argure about Apple all you like, but their fundamentals don’t lie. No other company in the entire IT industry *consistently* innovates and pushes the state-of-the-art like Apple does. When was the last time anyone lined up to buy an HP/Dell/Lenovo/etc./ad nauseum? Or the last time anyone gave half a shite about the newest Zune? (Are they even on the market anymore – does anyone even care – If so, why?)
You can love them or hate them, but if Apple had vanished, in 1997, half of the innovative products you use today (and most of the crappy ones) wouldn’t exist – perhaps more. In point of fact, everyone copies Apple to some degree or another. They are the yardstick that everyone in the consumer IT biz (and some others not even *IN* the CE space) tries to measure themselves by. Nobody wants to admit it, but everybody knows it.
So why sit here pontificating about something we know essentially *nothing* about? I, myself, intend to sit quitely, like a normal, sane, and rational person, observing and *waiting* to see what happens. And when it does, *THEN* – and only then – can we tell Apple how well they did, by voting with our wallets.
Rumor-mongers, Leakers, and the Quasi-Hipster-New-Media-Douchebag-Pundits who procalim to know something, only seek to pump up their click-through-rates and dislocate their shoulders patting themselves on their backs trying to convice we lowly, huddled masses how great they are.
What most people don’t know is that for every product of Apple’s which hits a shelf, probably a dozen or more failed, abandoned, killed-off, or future-possibility-prototye-speculations sit on a shelf or in the recycle bins behind 1 Infinte Loop.
If they drop 20 million into LQMT and find later out its unworkable, it will end up just like the Pippin, a future eBay rarity that never worked. And even then, someone will still buy it. And Apple will simply write it off as an operating loss. And *THEN*, get this, Life. Will. Go. On. Shocking, I know. Who saw *that* coming?
Sitting here, speculating one way or the other, changes nothing. Nobody is going to officially reveal the fruits of any possible outcomes, until Steve says so. And rest assured, whatever it is, it could (and likely *will*) be *YEARS* before it sees the light of day.
Apple doesn’t just slap together new technology and toss it out the door – especially with this kind of highly-esoteric, evolving technology. Look at the candy-colored iMacs, how long were those cases in engineering development, and later, production prototyping before they finally shipped a working product??
Nothing at Apple happens by accident, and certainly not before Steve is happy with it. You’re better off speculating who’s going to win the next American Idol competition, and in the end it will be just as useful – to your life or anyone else’s.
I now return you to your Tempest in a Teapot.
Mambo
So Jonny Ive needs this fancy thing-a-ma-whoosit to rip off Deiter from Braun in the 60′s? Just pop open one of their old catalogs and you’ll see all of the ‘futuristic’ stylings yet to come. Yesterday’s coffeepot is tomorrow’s media server…
swell

Wayyy back at the top of the article are these words: “Apple recently licensed Liquidmetal Technology’s IP…” It doesn’t say they bought a machine, it says they bought the patents, etc. Three reasons come to mind.
One reason is that Apple could build custom liquidmetal forming machines using the latest innovations for their particular uses. Presumably the prototype can already be improved upon.
Two is that, as Duane suggested, Apple can use the IP to freeze others out. That is, after all, what a patent does- it permits the owner to prevent others from using it. The next Droid will have to find some other way to form or stamp out their product.
or Three, Apple will do both- use the technology where it’s useful, and disallow others from using it at all, or only in noncompetitive ways.
Historically, companies in expansion mode, with cash to spend, tended to either diversify or consolidate. By consolidate I mean focus on a line of products but expand operations to possibly include development of raw materials, processing those materials, transportation, manufacturing parts, assembly, and even retail sales of the consumer product.
Does anyone do this any more? Apple could come close with manufacturing, design, production, distribution, wholesale & consumer direct sales, add-on sales, supervision of third-party sales, warranties, repairs etc mostly handled in-house. Apple (Steve) likes to be in control; not overly dependent upon outsiders (they still need Intel for now).
http://liquidmetaladvocate.blogspot.com Merkel
While Leander posts quite prolifically on CultofMac, I should like to point out a few indiscretions on this recent post(s) on Liquidmetal.
1) Merkel did not authorize Kahney to publish his comments and conjectures; this conversation was off the record.
2) Never did Merkel consider himself to be an expert; rather he is simply an investor and very interested in the technology of the manufacture of amorphous metals. The experts in the field are William L. Johnson, PhD, Caltech and a whole slew of students he has mentored, not to mention the contributions of the Stanford and MIT departments researching similar areas.
3) Kahney’s discussion of my private investments is factually incorrect and morally reprehensible.
4) None of the sources to which I referred Kahney were cited in this article with their own first hand information (i.e. Buhler, Johnson)
http://liquidmetaladvocate.blogspot.com Merkel
The manufacturer of the injection molding machines is Engel, an affiliated company of Buehler, which is in Austria.
Phil Shihyun Kim
Very nice writing, Leander!
Ash shoes
This contest is a very good idea, I think i’ll use that for my website.