Here’s a vocabulary word for you: Liquidmetal. Previously the purview of Terminator movies and killbots that are very difficult to eliminate, Liquidmetal is poised to be the next big material in making consumer electronics. Leading the way, shockingly, is Apple, which we had already heard may use the material in El Cinco (our in-house name for the iPhone 5) and now Slashgear has an anonymous tip that it might appear in the next wave of MacBook Pros. Liquidmetal is an alloy of titanium, zirconium, nickel, copper, and a few other metals blended together to make a surface so smooth it resembles liquid.
Liquidmetal was discovered at the California Institute of Technology in 1992. It’s a class of patented amorphous metal alloys (basically metallic glass) with uniqueproperties including high strength, high wear resistance against scratching and denting, and a good strength-to-weight ratio. Apple was granted rights to use it in August of 2010.
“Liquidmetal allows precision parts to be fabricated similar to plastic injection molding, but with similar properties to metal,” IHS senior principal analyst Kevin Keller said.
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