Yeah, you bought a golf club. Beyond that I have a hard time believing.
There's a reason no one is using LiquidMetal - it doesn't live up to the hype.
Nobody's put much effort into it yet. Apple has a long history with new materials. I bet you were a LiquidMetal fan until Apple got involved.
And those limitations would be?
Regular metals don't cast very well due to their crystal structure. There are various methods to overcome many of the problems, most of which involve more time, effort and expense. Apple is not going to intricately investment cast 20+ million consumer products a year.
Apple moved away from plastic for good reasons, the aesthetics, heat conductance and strength just isn't there, but Apple's switch to metal has its own obvious problem: machining is expensive. So Apple is looking for a metal that can be manufactured as cheaply and accurately as a plastic. All evidence shows that LiquidMetal alloys can fill this role. That Apple has been playing with this stuff for a couple years and just decided to dump a ton of money on an exclusive license pretty much shows Apple found some great uses for it.
Actually, I was looking at a linear spring for a solenoid. The high Young's modulus makes it a good candidate for such applications, where linearity of force over displacement is important.
Nobody's put much effort into it yet. Apple has a long history with new materials. I bet you were a LiquidMetal fan until Apple got involved.
Pure BS. LiquidMetal has been around for a decade, they've pushed it all over the place, and no one really has bought off on it. Vertu did, for some of their cell phones (making Apple a Johnny-come-lately to that application), but in terms of bigger uses? Few and far between.
Regular metals don't cast very well due to their crystal structure. There are various methods to overcome many of the problems, most of which involve more time, effort and expense. Apple is not going to intricately investment cast 20+ million consumer products a year.
REALLY? What's your background? It's clear you're not involved in manufacturing or casting of products. The minimum size of details that you can cast with most metals is on the order of 0.5 mils, with wall thicknesses of about 20 mils. LiquidMetal doesn't help that at all. You're well ABOVE the range of crystalline structures (typically 8-10 microns) inside the steel.
You know what you've read on their website, and have nothing to base it on. Other than Apple is using it therefore it must be the Greatest Thing Ever.
Apple moved away from plastic for good reasons
Yeah, they like to be different...
the aesthetics
Sure, it looks different than plastic.
heat conductance
BS. Glass and steel are TERRIBLE conductors of heat; carbon infused plastics - or thin-wall plastics - are better conductors and radiators of heat. Your ignorance is showing...
and strength just isn't there
How much strength is required? There are thin phones made from plastic bodies all the time. The Motorola RAZR for instance, and it didn't have a problem with shattering and breaking.
The reason Apple's using glass and metal has NOTHING to do with engineering and EVERYTHING to do with looks. They talk about engineering reasons, and people like you swallow it up, but real engineers know it's all just fluff to cover up "hey it looks cool".
machining is expensive
Yes, it is. Which is why you can cast those parts if you know what the heck you're doing. Casting the details needed inside a cell phone component, or small portable product is not difficult if you know what the heck you're doing. It's done quite often with laptops and radios.
So Apple is looking for a metal that can be manufactured as cheaply and accurately as a plastic
That's not LiquidMetal. It's as expensive as any other typical casting metal (it's basically a slightly different alloy with a different quenching process), and the license fees are added on top of it. The higher costs - and nothing really special in terms of Young's modulus and overall strength - are the reasons no one else has really started to use it.
That Apple has been playing with this stuff for a couple years and just decided to dump a ton of money on an exclusive license pretty much shows Apple found some great uses for it.
Yes. A large segment of their fanbois will slobber over the "new stuff" and claim "it's the greatest stuff ever!" and give Apple another marketing point.
So what about the fact that Vertu was using this 5 years ago? Does that mean Apple was stupid for the last 5 years, since it's been out and used in cell phones for that long? Was Apple dumb to not use it in all their iPhones? Clearly the ability to BE used in a phone has been around at least as long as the idea of the iPhone...