Third revolution tempts NZ engineer from retirement

By SIMON COLLINS

It is twice as strong as steel, but as easily moulded as plastic - and its inventors say it will revolutionise the world.

"Liquid metal", a super-hard alloy of several metals that softens into a tar-like substance when heated, is being used to produce a new super-thin cellphone for Samsung Electronics.

It is being made in South Korea by a US-based company, Liquidmetal Technologies, whose chief technology officer is a New Zealander, Dr Neil Paton.

The company raised US$70.7 million ($146 million) in a float on New York's Nasdaq Stock Exchange in March and started full-scale production near Seoul last month.

Korean-born founder James Kang predicted at Korea's World Knowledge Forum in Seoul that liquid metal would become the world's "third revolution" in materials.

The first was steel, in the 1850s, which made possible railways, cars and most of the industrial Machinery that created the modern world.

The second was plastic, a driving force of the industrial economy after World War II.

The third began in the 1950s with the discovery of amorphous metal alloys which cool in a way which keeps their atoms jumbled up as in a liquid, rather than in the normal crystal shapes of other metals.

Ironically, their "liquid-like" structure makes them much stronger than standard metals, which are liable to break along the lines between crystals.

Scientists at the California Institute of Technology led by Professor William Johnson, while looking for a new alloy for aircraft wings in 1992, finally found a mix of metals that cooled into such a strong alloy that they believed it had to have commercial value.

Kang said he was convinced when he cut through titanium "like butter", but sent a lump of the new alloy flying out of the vice under the pressure of his attempt to cut it.

"I'm not the dullest person around," he said. "I said, 'That's hard! It's got to be good for something'."

Finding that something, however, has not been easy. After starting the company in 1994, his first product was a super-hard golf club. It was technically successful, but overpriced. It flopped.

But since its float in March, the company has signed new contracts not only with Samsung but also to develop ammunition for the US military and surgical scalpels, watch parts and - again - golf clubs for various US companies.

This time it is no longer trying to sell the products to consumers directly, but will supply a surgical products company, a watch company and a golf company.

However, the first golf venture did score one hit: Dr Paton, who was vice-president of Michigan's Howmet Corporation, which made the materials for the golf clubs on contract to Kang's venture.

Paton, who left Auckland with a masters in engineering in 1962, quit Howmet a year ago planning to retire in California with his Canadian wife, Louise, close to their two married children in Santa Monica and San Francisco.

"My intention was to retire. But Liquidmetal talked me into a relationship that sounded too good to miss," he told the Herald from Lake Forest near Los Angeles, where he is based at the company's research centre.

"I think it's one of the most exciting things to come along in materials technology for many years."

Liquidmetal Technologies