Liquidmetal Technologies Inc (LQMT)

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Article about our partner Yihao:

China Powder Reuters in a recent conference, a folding screen phone, fully aware of the visual experience freely flexible folding screen to bring enjoyment to address the problem of performance in which the shaft is called "liquid metal" in the new material.

This "liquid metal" is not a magical robot that can automatically repair after being pierced by a bullet in "Terminator" and deform at will according to the environment.

In the academic field, people prefer to call it amorphous metal alloys. Because of its superior performance of high hardness, high elasticity, and high strength, it has become the "terminator" in the production of mobile phones, automobiles and other products.

Dongguan Yihao Metal Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yihao Metal"), which provides hinge solutions for this folding screen mobile phone, is currently one of the few energy products and possesses mechanical equipment manufacturing, raw material smelting and production, forming, and One of the full-process enterprises such as post-process.

Last year was the fifth year of the establishment of Yihao Metal. This young company is leading the liquid metal industry to compete in major end markets. Every successful application stimulates the nerves of the industry.

In more and more fields, China has transformed from "imitator" and "chaser" to "leading runner". Leading the way means taking on the status of industry pioneer and innovator.

Liquid metal is one of the representatives of cutting-edge new materials. Chinese companies are expanding their boundaries as "leaders", but at the same time they have encountered the dilemma of many innovators.

You can see the leopard in the tube.

01

Difficult industrialization exploration
In 2014, liquid metal set off a trend of industrialization in China.
This year, liquid metal companies such as Yihao Metal, Changzhou Shijing, and Pamdihaoyu were established successively.Before that, few people in China had heard of liquid metal. Gao Kuan, the general manager of Yihao Metal, was one of the earliest companies in China that studied liquid metals.As one of the earliest representatives of domestic liquid metal research and development, Gao Kuan witnessed China's liquid metal industrialization process.

"The magic of liquid metal is that it can be formed by die-casting like plastic, and the shrinkage rate of the material is small, and the product can be formed at one time through the mold. Because of the rapid cooling during the die-casting process, the amorphous structure is formed, thereby obtaining Product performance with high hardness, high wear resistance and high corrosion resistance."


When Gao Kuan, who has more than ten years of experience in the industry, talked about liquid metal, his speech speed increased significantly, and his eyes showed excitement.Liquid metal has hardness and wear resistance far beyond stainless steel and even titanium. Take a mobile phone as an example. Whether it is a screen or a case, the harder the material, the less likely to be scratched.Secondly, liquid metal has good gloss and high corrosion resistance. There is no need for diamond highlight chamfering or complicated anodizing process. This allows liquid metal to enter the luxury watch industry supply system In addition, in terms of accuracy, liquid metal die-casting products can compete with machined products, and there are no additional costs and waste materials.

In June 2015, a piece of news added fire to the liquid metal industry. According to reports, Apple and its liquid metal material partner Liquidmetal (hereinafter referred to as "LQMT") have been granted two new patents for liquid metal technology.Suddenly, speculation that liquid metal is expected to be used in the next generation of Apple mobile phones is everywhere.The ideal is full, but the reality is very skinny. With the introduction of the next generation of Apple mobile phones, liquid metal did not appear as expected.The netizens were in an uproar and sighed.

"Chewing the glass while staring at the abyss of death" is a true portrayal of cutting-edge new material innovation. Liquid metal, which was discovered as early as 1959, has gone through a long and tortuous road in the process of industrialization.

LQMT, the first company in the world to engage in the industrial development of liquid metal, has been exploring for many years. Although it has a team of experts in the field of liquid metal, LQMT was once in a difficult situation in commercialization.

At the technical level, the bulk forming technology of amorphous alloys has been difficult to break through for a long time. There are almost no bulk liquid metal products of more than 20 grams on the market, which greatly restricts the development of liquid metal products. On the equipment and materials side, LQMT relies on German Engel Company and American MATERION Company respectively.

The same is true in South Korea on the other side of the ocean. Some teams that invested in early R&D have all withdrawn.

In China, after experiencing the climax of industrialization in 2014, it gradually returned to rationality and only added a new company called Shanghai Chisheng. Compared with the 3D printing, graphene and other industries that emerged at almost the same time , the industry's attitude towards liquid metal can be described as indifference.

"The capital and technical thresholds for entering the liquid metal industry are relatively high. Small companies can't do it at all. Large companies are more concerned about major market demand. They will not invest at all if market demand is not opened." Years of precipitation let Gao Kuan Have a thorough view of the liquid metal industry.

From Gao Kuan's point of view, the development of liquid metal must achieve three points at the basic level: independent research and development capabilities at the material end; non-standard equipment development capabilities; and process optimization capabilities.

It is not easy to meet the technical capabilities of these three levels at the same time. "Survive first, then find the market." This sentence became a portrayal of the survival of the liquid metal industry at that time.

02

Industry collaboration breaks



In March 2016, Yi'an Technology Professor Li Yangde acquired 46% of LQMT's shares and became the CEO, which made Yihao Metal, a subsidiary of Yi'an Technology, closely linked with LQMT in business.The liquid metal industrialization of Yihao Metal has begun to move towards a road of coordinated development.Despite the twists and turns in the early industrialization attempts, LQMT still has the world's core and most comprehensive intellectual property rights related to bulk amorphous alloys.

The Yihao Metal team has nearly 20 years of experience in new material research and development, molds, mechanical preparation, molding and production. It has advanced new material production technology, mature production technology and a complete industrial chain. It is not only increasingly engaged in small product molding It is mature and has the capacity to produce large pieces of molded products.

"The combination of the two, complementary advantages, has a strong synergistic effect."

When talking about the industrialization advantages of Yihao Metal, Gao Kuan talked freely.With the help of LQMT's international reputation and influence, Yihao Metal has begun to vigorously promote the application of liquid metal in consumer electronics, automotive industry, medical equipment, sports goods and other industries and fields. In the process of communicating with overseas target customers such as Tesla and Apple, the LQMT team has given great help. In the second half of 2015, Professor Li Yangde from Yian Technology visited Tesla's headquarters in the United States. They were at a loss about the choice of material for Model X door locks. Because the door is very heavy and has a great impact on the door lock, the existing materials cannot meet the test requirements. After learning about the situation, Professor Li Yangde immediately arranged the team of Yi'an Technology and Yihao Metal to send the finished door locks to the United States within one month, and passed Tesla's test at one time. At present, the door locks of the full series of Model X are produced and supplied by Yi'an Technology and Yihao Metal.

During the promotion of liquid metal, Yihao Metal has clearly positioned several research directions, one of which is the automotive field.

Through communication with Tesla’s R&D department, Yihao Metal found that Tesla’s door design has particularly high requirements for the performance of the lock. Ordinary materials and processes cannot meet the needs of the product. However, the high hardness, high toughness, and The high-strength characteristics can just meet its needs.With the excellent performance of liquid metal products, Yihao Metal's engineers successfully persuaded Tesla designers to use liquid metal as the raw material for the lock.


"On the basis of solving customer problems, we have also achieved our own market expansion." Yihao Metal applies this method to other fields such as consumer electronics and medical equipment.

The "face recognition" technology applied on mobile phones has very high requirements for lens holders. A slight deviation will cause recognition failure. Yihao Metal has successfully entered the supply chain of domestic TOP5 mobile phone manufacturers with the advantages of liquid metal performance and comprehensive cost. , And won 90% of the market share in one fell swoop.

Every small step made by Yihao Metal in the fields of automobiles and mobile phones is a big step in the development of the liquid metal industry. Compared with imported substitute materials, there are mature target customers and markets. As a brand-new material, liquid metal is still blank in many application markets.

"I hope our colleagues can also speed up the pace and continue to accelerate the industrialization process of liquid metal."

It is difficult for a single tree to become a forest. Only when multiple competition and new blood are injected will the liquid metal industry be full of vitality. Having been in the manufacturing industry for decades, he knows the way

03

The cost of innovation for a leader When R&D enters the land of no one, when the market application is blank, the success and failure of each step of exploration are precious. The industrialization of liquid metal is the epitome of the development of thousands of new materials, and its commercialization model is worth pondering.Whether it is automobiles or consumer electronics, every step of the expansion of the market space depends on the end manufacturers’ knowledge and recognition of liquid metal technology. The active participation of new material R&D personnel in the development of downstream products is crucial.

"New materials are designed, not purchased."

Gao Kuan especially emphasized that only by participating in the development process of the terminal product from the design link, can we understand the performance requirements of the product and have the opportunity to enter the product supply chain. Once the product design has been completed, it is almost impossible to start from the procurement side to break the market.

For companies engaged in cutting-edge material development such as Yihao Metal, the innovation of entering the "no man's land" means a greater price.In the past, China's consumer electronic product design blindly catered to market hotspots, and product design was superficial and lacking continuity, which was extremely unfavorable for the promotion and application of new materials.

Yihao Metal has invested heavily in the product development of the Face ID bracket that supports the "face recognition" technology. This kind of optical bracket plays a very important role in ensuring the security of face recognition at the payment level. However, after a brief outbreak, as terminal manufacturers abandoned the Face ID solution one after another, the hard-worked liquid metal stent became useless.And such cases abound in the new material industry, and it has become an unspeakable pain for the material people.

With the intensification of consumer electronics competition, innovation has entered the deep water zone, and relying on business model and product function innovation is no longer feasible, and the design concepts of terminal manufacturers themselves are also quietly changing.

From vivo, which jointly developed chips with Samsung, to TCL, which divested its traditional business and focused on panel technology innovation, a series of actions by terminal manufacturers reflect the emphasis on upstream materials in product design.

This may bring more opportunities to innovators such as Yihao Metal.

According to statistics, the global amorphous product market has a development space of about US$30 billion. Among them, the liquid metal mobile phone frame alone is expected to reach US$5 billion.

Yihao Metal, which has the advantages of the entire industry chain including material research and development, equipment development, is clearly ready. Gao Kuan said that in the future, he will dig deeper into the fields of automobiles and consumer electronics, based on the development of liquid metals, while expanding the fields of magnesium and aluminum alloys.