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Materials & Manufacturing: Liquidmetal can be processed like plastic

By Rain Noe - August 18, 2010

in Materials | Tech | Object Culture

Now it's becoming a little more apparent what can be done, from a manufacturing perspective, with the Liquidmetal material that Apple has recently licensed. And we couldn't be more excited.

Back in May we posted on Oskar Zieta's blow-molded steel furniture pieces, which are bulky objects rendered using brute industrial force. While I applauded the experimentation, I wasn't a huge fan of the aesthetic (see photo below).

Liquidmetal, on the other hand, is essentially metal that can be subjected to manufacturing techniques normally reserved for plastic or glass on a very fine level. As a stunning example, check out this cosmetics-style bottle that was blow-molded using Liquidmetal:

I couldn't help but drool over how tight the manufacturer got the corner radii on the chamfers, and the wall thickness is reportedly just 0.3mm. "No other metal process can fabricate this shape," said Dr. Jan Schroers, Liquidmetal Technologies' former Director of Research. "It takes about 30 seconds to fabricate and you are done."

In an interview from a few months ago, Apple design chief Jonathan Ive stressed the importance of constantly experimenting with materials, and we cannot wait to see what the design team comes up with after running Liquidmetal through what are sure to be some imaginative paces.

"I think they're going to make the iPhone out of it," said [Schroers]. "It's quite obvious from what Liquidmetal has done in the past and what the technology is capable of."

via cult of mac

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joe

14 years ago

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lolwut? cans aren't blow molded. how it's made FTW http://bit.ly/aVwbiB
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Daniel Erwin

14 years ago

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I haven't blow-molded a lot of aluminum cans myself, but I understand it's a fairly well-understood process by some people. Any reason you couldn't put letter forms into an aluminum can while it's being blown, or is there something else about this stuff that makes it better than aluminum?
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