Replies to post #150511 on Liquidmetal Technologies Inc (LQMT)

[Spartan]

I think the NASA gear contract went to Glassimetal

[LQMThopeful]

How do you know this? Links?

[The Paraclete]

The gears are a fact.

That's great news. - I know for a fact that as of last May, they were having difficulty manufacturing gears because of a major obstacle referred to as "draft molding." (I do not understand what that means.) At the time, they were engaged in an active R&D project that was based on solving the problem, and they were looking seriously into gear manufacturing.

So while they've been accused of sitting on their hands and doing nothing all year, they were actually quite busy solving at least one manufacturing problem.

As far as Glassimetals is concerned, as of last year, Glassimetal production was limited by three significant issues. 1) Without elaborating, their process of forming parts is more complex than that used by LQMT. 2) Because of #1, their parts are considerably more expensive than comparable parts made by LQMT. 3) Glassimetal parts are (again, as of last year) limited in size to about 1 gram. LQMT parts can weigh as much as 80 grams. That's a huge difference.

For reasons stated, it's unlikely that Glassimetal is in a meaningful competition with LQMT - at least as of now. If Glassimetals did get a contract to make gears, the gears have to be tiny.