Liquid Metal

October 28, 2002 7:16 AM

Business 2.0: Hasta La Vista, Titanium. It's metal, but you can mould it like plastic. I guess we know what the next generation of Powerbooks are going to be made from.

The alloy's closest relatives -- steel and titanium -- take separate molds each time they are cast, and require additional machining to get them to spec. When Chrysler makes a steel pinion rod in its steering assemblies, 97 machining steps are required before the rod arrives on the assembly line. By contrast, Kang boasts, LiquidMetal scalpel blades would emerge from their molds razor-sharp and ready for surgery, since the metal can be cast with unprecedented accuracy -- to within 1 micron, or a 25,000th of an inch.

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