At the recent press conference of a folding screen mobile phone, the experiencers fully felt the visual enjoyment brought by the flexible flexible screen, which solved the problem of the hinge performance is a new material called “liquid metal”.
This “liquid metal” is not a magical robot that can automatically repair after being pierced by a bullet in “Terminator” and deform at will according to the environment.
In the academic field, people prefer to call it amorphous metal alloys. Because of its superior performance of high hardness, high elasticity, and high strength, it has become the “terminator” in the production of mobile phones, automobiles and other products.
DGYH Amorphous Metal Material Technology Co., Ltd., which provides hinge solutions for this folding screen mobile phone, is currently one of the few energy production companies in the world, and has the entire process of mechanical equipment manufacturing, raw material smelting and production, molding and post-processing. One.
In more and more fields, China has transformed from “imitator” and “chaser” to “leading runner”. Leading the way means taking on the status of industry pioneer and innovator.
Liquid metal is one of the representatives of cutting-edge new materials, and Chinese companies are expanding their boundaries as “front-runners”, but at the same time they have encountered the dilemma of many innovators.
01 Difficult industrialization exploration
In 2014, liquid metal set off a trend of industrialization in China.
This year, DGYH Amorphous Metal Technology Company, CZSJ Liquid Metal Material Technology Company, PMHY and other liquid metal companies were established successively.
Before that, few people in China had heard of liquid metal. The team that DGYH General Manager Gao Kuan was with at the time was one of the earliest domestic research and development institutions for liquid metal.
As one of the earliest representatives of China’s domestic liquid metal research and development, Gao Kuan has witnessed China’s liquid metal industrialization process.
“The magic of liquid metal is that it can be formed by die-casting like plastic, and the shrinkage rate of the material is small, and the product can be formed at one time through the mold. Because of the rapid cooling during the die-casting process, the amorphous structure is formed, thereby obtaining Product performance with high hardness, high wear resistance and high corrosion resistance.”
Liquid metal has hardness and wear resistance far beyond stainless steel and even titanium. Take a mobile phone as an example. Whether it is a screen or a case, the harder the material, the less likely to be scratched.
Secondly, liquid metal has good gloss and high corrosion resistance. There is no need for diamond highlight chamfering or complicated anodizing process. This allows liquid metal to enter the luxury watch industry supply system.
In addition, in terms of accuracy, liquid metal die-casting products can compete with machined products, and there are no additional costs and waste materials.
In June 2015, a piece of news added fire to the liquid metal industry. According to reports, Apple and its liquid metal material partner Liquidmetal (hereinafter referred to as “LQMT”) have been granted two new patents for liquid metal technology.
Suddenly, speculation that liquid metal is expected to be used in the next generation of Apple mobile phones is everywhere.
However, with the launch of the next generation of Apple mobile phones, liquid metal did not appear as expected.
LQMT, the first company in the world to engage in the industrial development of liquid metal, has been exploring for many years. Although it has a team of experts in the field of liquid metal, LQMT was once in a difficult situation in commercialization.
At the technical level, the bulk forming technology of amorphous alloys has been difficult to break through for a long time. There are almost no bulk liquid metal products of more than 20 grams on the market, which greatly limits the development of liquid metal products. On the equipment and materials side, LQMT relies on German Engel Company and American MATERION Company respectively.
The same is true in South Korea on the other side of the ocean. Some teams that invested in early R&D have all withdrawn.
In China, after experiencing the climax of industrialization in 2014, it gradually returned to rationality and only added the new company SHCS Amorphous Alloy Material Technology Company. Compared with the 3D printing, graphene and other industries that emerged at almost the same time, the industry’s attitude towards liquid metal can be described as indifference.
“The capital and technical thresholds for entering the liquid metal industry are relatively high. Small companies can’t do it at all, while large companies pay more attention to significant market demand. If market demand is not opened, they will not invest at all.” Years of precipitation let Gao Kuan Have a thorough view of the liquid metal industry.
From Gaokuan’s point of view, the development of liquid metal must achieve three points at the basic level: independent research and development capabilities at the material end; non-standard equipment development capabilities; and process optimization capabilities.
Meeting the technical capabilities of these three levels at the same time is not easy. “Survive first, then find the market.” This sentence became a portrayal of the survival of the liquid metal industry at that time.
02Industry Synergy
In March 2016, Professor Li Yangde of China’s leading liquid metal technology group GDYA Amorphous Alloy Materials Technology Group acquired 46% of LQMT shares and became the CEO, which made GDYH, a subsidiary of GDYA, closely connected with LQMT in business. Together.
The industrialization of GDYH’s liquid metal has begun to move towards coordinated development.
Despite the twists and turns in the early industrialization attempts, LQMT still has the world’s core and most comprehensive intellectual property rights related to bulk amorphous alloys.
And GDYH has nearly 20 years of experience in new material research and development, molds, mechanical preparation, molding and production. It has advanced new material production technology, mature production technology and a complete industrial chain. It is not only increasingly mature in small product molding, but also It also has the ability to produce bulk molded products.
“The combination of the two, complementary advantages, has a strong synergistic effect.”
With the help of LQMT’s international reputation and influence, GDYH has begun to vigorously promote the application of liquid metal in consumer electronics, automotive industry, medical equipment, sporting goods and other industries and fields. In the process of communicating with overseas target customers such as Tesla and Apple, the LQMT team has given great help. In the second half of 2015, Professor Li Yangde from GDYA visited Tesla’s headquarters in the United States. They were at a loss about the choice of material for Model X door locks. Because the door is very heavy and has a great impact on the door lock, the existing materials cannot meet the test requirements. After learning about the situation, Professor Li Yangde immediately arranged for the GDYA and GDYH teams to prepare the finished door locks and send them to the United States within one month, and passed the Tesla test at one time. At present, the door locks of the full series of Model X are produced and supplied jointly by GDYA and GDYH.
In the process of promoting liquid metal, GDYH clearly positioned several research directions, one of which is the automotive field.
Through communication with Tesla’s R&D department, GDYH found that Tesla’s door design has particularly high requirements for the performance of the lock. Ordinary materials and processes simply cannot meet the needs of the product, while the high hardness, high toughness and high strength of liquid metal The characteristics of it can meet its needs.
With the excellent performance of liquid metal products, GDYH engineers successfully persuaded Tesla designers to use liquid metal as the raw material for the lock.
“On the basis of solving customer problems, we have also achieved our own market expansion.” GDYH applies this strategy to other fields such as consumer electronics and medical equipment.
The “face recognition” technology applied on mobile phones has very high requirements for lens holders. A slight deviation will cause recognition failure. GDYH has successfully entered the supply of TOP5 mobile phone manufacturers such as Huawei in China with the performance of liquid metal and comprehensive cost advantages. Chain, won 90% of the market share in one fell swoop.
Every small step GDYH makes in the fields of automobiles and mobile phones is a big step in the development of the liquid metal industry. Compared with imported substitute materials, there are mature target customers and markets. As a brand-new material, liquid metal is still blank in many application markets.