Liquidmetal Technologies Inc (LQMT)

[Argish]

I am curious as to the energy cost to put into the CalTech process in order to create the heat necessary to instantly melt their alloy - this could be a huge energy cost and make the process not economically viable.

There you go:

"The current invention is directed to a method of uniformly heating, rheologically softening, and thermoplastically forming metallic glasses rapidly (typically with processing times of less than 1 second into a net shape article using an extrusion or mold tool by Joule heating. More specifically, the method utilizes the discharge of electrical energy (typically 100 Joules to 100 KJoules) stored in a capacitor to uniformly and rapidly heat a sample or charge of metallic glass alloy"

At maximum the CalTech-process needs 100 KLoules, which is approx. 30 Wh! While I am writing, my macbook has already consumed this amount of energy within 20 Minutes. So, you see, its not a nuclear bomb you need. Actually it is a highly efficient process:

"The RCDF process of the current invention proceeds from the observation that metallic glass, by its virtue of being a frozen liquid, has a relatively low electrical resistivity, which can result in high dissipation and efficient, uniform heating of the material at rate such that the sample is adiabatically heated with the proper application of an electrical discharge"

SHEET FORMING OF METTALIC GLASS BY RAPID CAPACITOR DISCHARGE:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/WO2012092208A1.html