More than 200 guests visit Liquidmetal Forum in Stuttgart

More than 200 guests accepted the invitation from the Austrian machine manufacturer to visit the Liquidmetal Forum at its subsidiary in southwestern Germany. "The number of registrations far exceeded our expectations," says a pleased Claus Wilde, Managing Director at ENGEL Deutschland and head of the Technologieforum Stuttgart, who opened the event. The forum, which was originally planned to last just one day, was prolonged to last two days because of the unexpectedly high number of registrations. The guests came not only from the territory served by the subsidiary, but from all regions of Germany, as well as from Austria, Switzerland, France, Great Britain and Sweden. Only about half of the companies represented were already customers of ENGEL. Besides plastics processors, many metal processors also took the opportunity to get to know the new technology and ENGEL. While the injection moulding machines, robots and system solutions from ENGEL had previously been solely for processing polymeric material, the machine manufacturer is now also opening new vistas of quality and efficiency for metal processing.

Completely new material characteristics
The name Liquidmetal stands for a group of zirconium-based alloys that have been developed by Liquidmetal Technologies of Rancho Santa Margarita, California. As the exclusive engineering partner, ENGEL is the only supplier in the world offering machinery and system solutions for the injection moulding of these materials. A third partner is Materion Corporation, the material producer and distributor based in Mayfield Heights, Ohio. During the Forum event, the three partners jointly presented the new materials, injection moulding for processing them efficiently, and the potential they have for applications.

The participants were impressed above all by the completely innovative material characteristics. "Thanks to their amorphous, non-crystalline structure, components made of Liquidmetal are extremely hard, but at the same time very elastic, which leads to very good recovery behaviour," as Steffen Mack, Business Development Manager at Materion, explains in his presentation. "They have low specific weight, are corrosion-resistant and biocompatible." The fact that the alloys can be processed in injection moulding is a further advantage compared to other metal materials, because this makes particularly efficient, highly automated and integrated processing methods possible. In only one step, injection moulding delivers fit-for-purpose components with very high quality surfaces.

"These characteristics are fascinating for anyone who works with plastics or metals," says Heinz Rasinger, Vice President ENGEL teletronics. "Now it is all about the question of how we can make the best possible use of these characteristics. We have discussed some very concrete ideas together with the participants at our forum. The results have shown that it will be less a question of substituting the material in existing products, but much rather how we can design components in a way that can take full advantage of the potential of the material. What we experienced during these two days is an almost euphoric optimism, comparable with the emergence of thermoplastics."

Broad potential from medical technology to aerospace
The great interest among the participants could be seen above all in the lively discussions after the presentations and around the injection moulding machine in the technology centre. As a sample component, small flags with a very delicate and complex three-dimensional structure were produced there. The live presentation gave an impressive demonstration of the efficiency of the method and the high precision of the injection moulding machine, as well as the excellent surface quality of the products.

The Panel of Experts gave conference participants the opportunity to discuss their product ideas and questions in a small, confidential circle of experts from ENGEL, Liquidmetal Technologies and Materion. Some companies brought sample components and CAD drawings for this purpose. "For some products, the discussions led to some very promising approaches," says Rasinger. "We will be starting the first projects shortly."

The Panel of Experts confirmed once again that there will be a broad field of applications from medical technology to electronics, automotive to aerospace and even sports equipment. "Liquidmetal offers great potential in particular for components subject to strong mechanical strain with high demands on component design and surface quality," emphasizes Christoph Lhota, Vice President ENGEL medical, thinking for example of the long and sometimes very delicate instruments for keyhole surgery. Further application examples that were discussed in Stuttgart include functional components for electrical devices and decoration elements for automotive interiors.

A particularly interesting issue is the combinability of Liquidmetal with other metals or plastics in a multi-component process. "At our technology centre in California, we have already fabricated sample multi-component parts with Liquidmetal and another metal," says Thomas Steipp, CEO at Liquidmetal Technologies, giving the conference participants a preview of some of the coming steps in development. "Until now, this has been executed as a transfer procedure, but an integrated process is also conceivable."

Contract manufacturing capacities soon also available in Europe
The technology centre at Liquidmetal Technologies has long stood for development, but in 2014, Liquidmetal began installing capacity for contract manufacturing. It now has its ISO 9001:2008 certification and is manufacturing parts for customers. "It is not necessary for those who would like to get started with the new technology to first invest in a manufacturing cell of their own," says Steipp. "We are prepared to supply prototype and production parts now from our Manufacturing Center of Excellence in California. Additionally, it is our goal to also establish contract manufacturing capacities in Europe." All that is needed for getting started is a license that is conferred by Liquidmetal Technologies. Apple and Swatch are already among the first licensees.

After the great success of the Liquidmetal Forum, ENGEL, Liquidmetal Technologies and Materion are planning further joint events.

Source: ENGEL