Liquidmetal Technologies Inc (LQMT)

[Gamesc]

Here's another one of my recent favorites:

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2017/0087804.html


"BMG feedstock provides the high strength and longevity of an amorphous alloy to a thickness useable in a housing, for example, of an electronic device. Housings composed of a BMG-laminate can form enclosures with a glass article. The cover sheet can be sapphire, polished glass or other like material. The enclosure formed by the BMG-laminate and cover sheet can form an interior volume that is configured to enclose various electronic components of electronic device. The BMG-laminate may define an opening in which a display is positioned. The display may include a liquid crystal display (LCD), an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, or other suitable display elements of components. In some embodiments, the BMG-laminate is fabricated in a near-to-net shape to the desired contour of the exterior surface of the electronic device.

Examples
Example 1: BMG-Carbon Weave Laminate
FIGS. 7A-D shows a BMG-carbon weave fabricated in accordance with an embodiment herein. FIG. 7A shows a top view of a fabricated BMG-carbon weave 700. Note the carbon fiber weave is embedded between two thin layers of BMG. The carbon fiber plain weave pattern 702 can be seen by the naked eye. In order to illustrate the laminate nature of the BMG-carbon weave, the fiber carbon weave layer 704 was made larger than the top and bottom BMG layers 706. As shown in FIG. 7B, the larger area carbon fiber weave 704 sticks out from between the two thermoplastically deformed BMG layers 706. FIG. 7C provides a perspective top view of the BMG-carbon weave laminate consisting of one carbon fiber weave layer sandwiched between two BMG plates. The two BMG plates bond to each through the carbon fiber weave layer to provide the significantly improved laminate strength parameters. Finally FIG. 7D shows a single BMG layer 706 thermoplastically formed into a carbon fiber layer 604 to illustrate the flow of the BMG in between the fibers (arrow 708) during laminate forming.

Example 1 illustrates the significant improvement of BMG-fiber laminates over other metal-laminates in the manner by which the fiber weave is mechanically embedded in the BMG. Conventional metal-laminates require adhesives and chemical bonding to form the laminate, an inferior bonding to embodiments described herein.

Example 2: BMG-Carbon Weave Fabrication
FIGS. 8A-F show the fabrication of a BMG-carbon fiber weave in accordance with embodiments herein. Various size fibers or fiber weaves can be used to prepare BMG-fiber laminates, the size typically determined by the required size of the feedstock. FIG. 8A shows a 1.5?×1.5? piece of dry carbon fiber 800 suitable as the fiber layer in a BMG-fiber laminate as does FIG. 8B, which shows a 3?×3? piece of dry carbon fiber 802. FIG. 8C shows the positioning of the 1.5?×1.5? fiber 800 on a thin sheet of 1.77?×1.77? BMG 804. In this embodiment the thin BMG sheet provides an overlap which during formation with a second 1.77? sheet would fully encapsulate the 1.5? fiber layer (see FIG. 8E). FIG. 8D shows the alternative where a 3?×3? piece of fiber 802 is positioned between two 1.77? thin BMG sheets. Finally, FIG. 8F shows a hot forming set-up 806 for fabrication of one embodiment of the BMG-laminate embodiments as described herein.

Example 2 shows the utility of making feedstock BMG-fiber laminates using carbon fiber weaves and pre-formed thin BMG sheets.

Example 3: Hot Formed and Quenched BMG-Carbon Fiber Laminates
FIG. 9 provides views of the two laminates fabricated in Example 2. The top panel shows the hot formed, fully encapsulated, 1.77?×1.77? BMG/1.5?×1.5? fiber weave laminate 900. The bottom panel shows the hot formed, 1.77?×1.77? BMG/3.0?×3.0? fiber weave laminate 902. The hot formed and quenched laminates, as shown in FIG. 9, show the BMG thermoplastically formed in and around and through the carbon weave layer, again showing the utility of mechanical bonding over chemically bonding. The BMG-carbon fiber laminates were quenched at an appropriate temperature.

The foregoing description, for purposes of explanation, used specific nomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the described embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the specific details are not required in order to practice the described embodiments. Thus, the foregoing descriptions of the specific embodiments described herein are presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not targeted to be exhaustive or to limit the embodiments to the precise forms disclosed. It will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings."