A lot of you people keep predicting the next version of MBP to be liquid metal, but nobody explains what it means. 
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What is Liquid Metal?
- Thread starter Merkava_4
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http://www.appleinsider.com/article...ghts_to_custom_super_durable_metal_alloy.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidmetal
http://www.liquidmetal.com/
http://www.liquidmetal.com/technology/ says the following:
found via some strange online service where one can input words and it looks for them and then gives you some page with links you can click and get answers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquidmetal
http://www.liquidmetal.com/
http://www.liquidmetal.com/technology/ says the following:
found via some strange online service where one can input words and it looks for them and then gives you some page with links you can click and get answers.
Liquidmetal is really a company name. The thing people are referring to is amorphous metal.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphous_metal
In the most basic sense, it's metal that has a glasslike structure (amorphous) instead of a crystalline structure. The amorphous structure is achieved by rapidly cooling the metal (on the order of millions of degrees per second) to prevent crystallization. The metal atoms don't have time to rearrange themselves into a crystalline structure when cooled that quickly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amorphous_metal
In the most basic sense, it's metal that has a glasslike structure (amorphous) instead of a crystalline structure. The amorphous structure is achieved by rapidly cooling the metal (on the order of millions of degrees per second) to prevent crystallization. The metal atoms don't have time to rearrange themselves into a crystalline structure when cooled that quickly.
Will it still be a CNC machined MBP made from a single piece of billet aluminum?
I'm thinking it would be a shame to quit making the Unibody.
I'm thinking it would be a shame to quit making the Unibody.
Will it still be a CNC machined MBP made from a single piece of billet aluminum?
I'm thinking it would be a shame to quit making the Unibody.
I would think it would largely be like a mold vs cnc'ing...though I would hope they would cnc or something to polish it up
Will it still be a CNC machined MBP made from a single piece of billet aluminum?
I'm thinking it would be a shame to quit making the Unibody.
No, it's a complicated alloy made predominantly from zirconium. There is no reason why it couldn't be machined, although I expect it would be cast and pressed for most of the required shapes.
We could assume it would look the same as the unibody construction, but with far less wasted metal in the machining process. Of course, it would be much stronger, harder and thinner (presumably lighter too) however it is unclear whether the material is economically feasible in the large quantities required to make an entire notebook case. Personally, I think a more likely candidate for its use is the iPhone 5.
I read all the links. They're describing it like it's similar to the the hot injection molded process
used in the manufacture of plastic structures. Is this a new injection molded metal process?
No.
It's a new alloy that when snap cooled gains very useful properties.
(An alloy, if you don't know, is a mixture of different metals, like iron + carbon = steel, or copper + tin = bronze, copper + zinc = brass, etc)
Liquid Metal (the alloy) can be injection moulded, but then has to be snap cooled.
The alloy could also be cast into blocks, rolled then snap frozen to get the properties, and then hot pressed into shape, while retaining said awesome properties.
It seems Liquid Metal is incredibly easy to work with, and you can do pretty much anything to it that you would do with normal aluminium or steel (minus the welding).
I doubt it. Unless you just want the strength and don't care about scratch resistance, in which case you could easily powder coat it, or electroplate it with a thin layer of a different metal.
wait, liquidmetal is scratch resistant?
so lets say i get a key and scratch the back of a liquidmetal mbp, nothing would happen?
How is liquid metal formed into its final shape?
If it has to be cooled so fast, how do you have time to form it into the shape of a MacBook Pro?
Liquid Metal is harder than strengthened steel, which is much harder than anything your key is likely to be made out of.
Your key would not damage a sheet of liquid metal, unless you pushed hard enough to dent it.
When it's hot they inject it into the shape of the macbook and then cool it rapidly.
As I said, it's an alloy, and a heat treatment process, probably involving liquid nitrogen, or even something colder.
You have two choices.
1) Form the alloy into the final shape (or close to it) by injection moulding, and/or pressing it into shape, and/or cutting, etc. Then, when it's finished, you heat it up (probably until it's red hot) and then snap cool it with liquid nitrogen/helium/whatever. This would only work if it can be cooled from a temperature below melting point and still get it's superpowers.
2) Start with a sheet of the alloy, snap cool it into "Liquid Metal" at the beginning, and then press and cut it into shape (while it's cold, or maybe warm) just like you would cold working aluminium or a low carbon steel. Apparently Liquid Metal can be heated to a temperature where it can easily be bent and stretched without negating its superpowers. Hence, easy to work with.
I don't believe a lot of information is available to us proles, but you could try reading a wiki article on steel casting. I don't expect the process would be all that different. I would expect tungsten lined moulds.
I thought they were referring to the T1000.
FWIW, iPhone SIM ejector tool is supposed to be made from liquid metal.
FWIW, iPhone SIM ejector tool is supposed to be made from liquid metal.
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I thought they were referring to the T1000.
FWIW, iPhone SIM ejector tool is supposed to be made from liquid metal.
My cruzer titanium flash drive is made of liquidmetal as well.
There are so many other types of metal Apple could go for that would be much stronger than Aluminium. One is Duralumin (Aluminium + 4% copper), however as Apple used to say the aluminium was "aircraft grade", they probably already use this. Stainless steel would be a scratch resistant choice, however would be much heavier. Carbon fibre would be even stronger, and lighter, but would scratch very easily unless it was coated in something.
Aluminium (or duralumin) certainly provides the best strength + toughness + scratch resistance to weight and cost ratio of pretty much any metal (ie it's an all-rounder), which is why it's been used so long in Apple computers and aircraft.
As LiquidMetal is 50% zirconium, which is moderately expensive, I'm not sure as to the economic realism of using it to build an entire notebook case.