I agree. Big news at the Open House....would be perfect.....so the building and machines become the back drop to the news. Instead of everyone wandering around looking at silent machines and wondering....when are things going to be running.
Time for some Advil;) found something interesting it's a long article which touches on everything but it states what Apple has planned for 2017 I believe the article is from 2016 there was no date will highlight in bold..
One of them is called "Bulk amorphous alloy sheet forming processes" and "Counter-gravity casting of hollow shapes", all exposing the amount of liquid metal Part of the method of production. While another US Patent No. 8,738,104 patent "Integral trapping glass insert in a metal bezel" directly exposes how sapphire is perfectly integrated with liquid metal. In the patent, Apple lists a number of practical methods, so that hard sapphire glass inlaid into the liquid metal. The specific method is to abandon the previous way of plastic mold, metal mold, liquid metal with plastic properties, in order to achieve sapphire and liquid metal to achieve seamless one molding effect. Sapphire has become Apple's strategic resources, the next strategic resource will be liquid metal On November 5, 2013, sapphire supplier GTAT announced that it has signed a multi-year, $ 578 million premium sapphire material supply agreement with Apple. The agreement includes Apple's plan to build a manufacturing facility dedicated to processing sapphire materials in Arizona, exclusively available to Apple sapphire glass. In this patent, Apple takes full advantage of the many non-metallic properties of liquid metal, describing how sapphire glass is combined with a liquid metal body. GTAT has the industry's most advanced sapphire crystal furnace, can create the world's largest sapphire crystal bar, large-scale industrialization means that Apple's sapphire cover costs will be rapidly declining, with Apple's exclusive agreement to ensure that sapphire resources have become Apple's Monopoly resources (similar to Apple's monopoly of CNC production capacity, but set a higher threshold for competitors). Sapphire has a molar hardness of 9 and a glass of a molar hardness of 5, and the sapphire has a fracture toughness of 2.3 MPa v m, which is almost three times that of the Corning gorilla glass, so the sapphire cover has a scratch resistance, Will be much better than Corning glass. But at the same time, sapphire also has a low transmittance (the same thickness of about 3 ~ 5%), the density is heavier (sapphire: 3.98g / cm3, glass: 2.54g / cm3), more brittle and other weaknesses, Apple's sapphire cover glass should be thinner than the existing glass cover (<0.5mm). This brings a big problem: large size (5.5 inch), very thin, fragile material protection structure must be much higher than the current aluminum alloy structure (iPhone 5/6/7), and stainless steel + glass protection Structure (iPhone4 / iPhone4S). This also explains to some extent why Apple did not use the industry on the iPhone6 ??/ iPhone7 eagerly hope that the sapphire cover, the reason it is not to the current strength of the aluminum alloy structure is in any case can not play to protect the sapphire cover, And Apple at this time in the liquid metal preparation is not mature, can only reluctantly part. And first only in the Apple Watch on the use of sapphire cover, the actual is because the watch screen is small, and was fixed in the hand, the possibility of being dropped greatly reduced, thus avoiding the high-demand protection box requirements. In other words, iPhone if you use sapphire cover, is unable to avoid the use of liquid metal protection box. In the field of consumer electronics, liquid metal was originally known for the Apple to use it as a SIM to take the needle, because of its high hardness, corrosion resistance, high wear resistance and other properties far more than ordinary metal. Domestic OPPO, Vivo, Huawei and other parts of the company has been using liquid metal material SIM card bracket, shaft. With the liquid metal block forming process mature, liquid metal is expected in the intelligent terminal protection frame and the internal structure of the bulk application, the liquid metal era will be ready to come out. Figure 3: Generation iPhone launch time
Next year (2017) will be the 10th anniversary of iPhone launch, in this important moment, Apple will offer a significant iPhone. We can not guess the new generation of iPhone will not use sapphire cover + liquid metal protection frame structure. (The industry is generally expected to coincide with the advent of the 10th anniversary of the iPhone in 2017, Apple will skip 7S direct launch of heavyweight iPhone 8, and may return to double glass fuselage.) But the future, Apple will be the structure into IPhone series mobile phone structure of the alternative. (Reason: Apple has been fully prepared for the application of the structure, including large-scale sapphire crystal furnace capacity investment, has been built more than 2,500 scale, single furnace weight of more than 200kg, Apple Watch is anyway It is impossible to consume such a large-scale production. IPad / iMac on the use of sapphire cover is not economical is not practical, the only possible application is the iPhone cover. And Apple has Liquidmetal Technologies liquid metal technology company signed in the consumer electronics In the future use of the latter alloy technology exclusive rights. Future users of iPhone products more expectations and requirements will also stimulate Apple to use new technologies). After the consumer electronics, liquid metal will be in the military, industrial, robotics, health care, environmental protection, aviation and other high-tech field have been force, the prospects are limitless! Liquid metal has been applied to the current cases are: bearings, hinges, SIM card care / SIM card needles, fixtures, golf club head, watch structure and so on. Due to the small number of global suppliers, has not been able to form a large-scale application. The future, the liquid metal structure to overcome the two short board will be a great expansion of the application: First, the current process to determine the weight of a single liquid metal structure is difficult to exceed 80g (large forming problems); Second, the surface treatment is more difficult, Such as chamfer grinding, sandblasting, feel less than the current aluminum alloy, stainless steel high-end process structural parts. Even so, to avoid the surface of the internal complex structure, because of its high strength requirements, forming complex, such as dual SIM card slot, liquid metal is the most preferred. In addition to consumer electronics, the future of liquid metal in large pieces of molding, improve the ratio of non-crystallinity and other technologies will be further enhanced, as a new material, the application of liquid metal is unusually broad. In theory, any complex structure, such as strength, hardness, wear resistance, radiation, insulation, high elasticity, can be replaced by liquid metal, so military, industrial, robotics, medical, environmental protection, aviation and other high-rich industry will find Liquid metal a lot of application scenarios! Yijian technology liquid metal products in the field of consumer electronics in the forefront of the world Domestic liquid metal suppliers, in particular, Zr-based liquid metal itself is not much, concentrated in scientific research institutes and small enterprises to predict the project, Yi An Technology is the only one announced in the consumer electronics business suppliers, but also in addition to Liquidmetal Technologies, the second global company in this field. The company in the core technology of large-scale molding, the surface treatment, has been able to provide 5.5-inch mobile phone protection frame, the future will develop more structural parts, we determine the key technical level of Yian has exceeded Liquidmetal Technologies. At present the company's liquid metal products have been applied to the United States Turing Machine Industries produced Turing phone.
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