Face it; R or research is being done in Dong Guan under Lugee's purview.
Lake Forest has only one purpose: D for developing customer base
To have a place to take American prospects to, to show off the technology, to hand out money clips and taper toys and to work with prospects toward designing prototypes and proposing applications that may interest the Company in purchasing parts made in China.
Most of the raw materials for the liquidmetal formulae are mined in China.
It seems most economical to make the formulations in China and manufacture the products made from them in China.
Why the power upgrade then? I agree that they will be research and development along with US domestic contact for US clients utilizing LL’s Chinese network of manufacturers for large volume orders that could never be met in the US. Smaller volume “dog scrap” manufacturing orders will be completed in LF. Sounds like a perfect and well thought out scenario to me. IMHO