Liquidmetal Technologies Inc (LQMT)

[rige]

Is Apple doing everything possible to steal away the lqmt process?

Calling it crystallisation when they actually control temperature to stop crystals growing, isn't that what lqmt does, stoping the molecules from crystallising making them more evenly spread out and thus stronger. Variations in temperature can cause age hardening, lqmt process is partly based on temperature variation.

http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2015/03/apples-invention-regarding-the-creation-of-new-gold-alloys-for-the-apple-watch-edition-emerges.html

Today the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple titled "Crystalline Gold Alloys with Improved Hardness," that reveals the technology behind the process that creates the yellow and rose gold found in Apple's higher-end Apple Watch line called the "Watch Edition."

Apple further notes that without wishing to be held to any theory or mechanism of action, by controlling the temperature of recrystallization heat treatment to be at or close to the lowest temperature at which the a homogenous structure can be formed for a particular alloy, the alloy can be recrystallized by forming equiaxed grains having an average length of less than 40 microns or less than 30 microns. The resulting alloy has improved resistance to cracking than alloys with larger grains.