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Metal Velcro

According to the

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site, all convetional materials are probably made obsolete by the technology.

So, any day now, someone will use the liquidmetal to do anything that can be done in any other material.

But, maybe it isn't entirely that easy........... Now how could that possibly be?

Casting as a rule hasn't eliminated all other forms of shape creation of metals.

Maybe, there is a clue to the future of liquidmetal in that observation.

Something which is "great" is not "great" for all things.

For example, I can imagine placing these etched features on low cost aluminum alloys for adhesive bonding purposes in complex assemblies.

I CAN CAST IT, BUT I CAN'T GET IT OUT OF THE MOLD.

Molds for solid parts often have smooth surfaces or else are easily broken and disintegrated to remove the molded part.

It doesn't readily follow that a cast liquidmetal including these roughened surfaces will easily be removed from the mold that was used in the casting, let alone other cost considerations.

Reply to
jbuch
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I just read this article:

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Velcro made from metal sounds like an interesting new idea, but instead of micro-maching or etching these small surface shapes, why not just use that Liquid Metal approach (
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) to injection-mould velcro?

Reply to
sanman

Well, suppose the surface of the mold could coated with a surface layer that could be easily broken or dissolved? That might enable the cast metal to be more easily freed. Then the coating could be reapplied or re-formed, for the next casting.

I once worked for a company that developed a method of molding engine manifolds out of plastic for a major truck manufacturer. It was considered advantageous to injection-mold the part as opposed to machining such a convoluted shape. The core of the mold was tin which had a lower melt-point than the plastic, so that it could be melted out of the inside of the molded plastic manifold piece.

Reply to
sanman

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