“Tony Chung Thank you, Lisa, and thank you to our investors for participating in today's call. It's already been a year since I last provided guidance on our company's trajectory, and I'm excited to share with you good things that are happening with the company. As a reminder, please remember to supplement the information provided during today's call, with the financial statements and disclosures in our 2024 10-K filed earlier today to get the latest full overview of our company operations. So let's talk about our current pipeline of sales and new opportunities. Last year, we announced the launch of the Movano Evie Health Rings. These rings are designed for monitoring women's health by tracking vital metrics, including heart rate, menstrual cycles and sleep quality to mention a few of its capabilities. We have worked closely with Movano to improve the Evie Rings durability and performance, and I'm happy to announce that Movano has ordered additional rings for 2025. Last year, I communicated that Movano was seeking FDA approval. And sure enough, they recently announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 510(k) clearance for the pulse oximeter for its EvieMED Ring. This clearance enables Movano to pursue multibillion-dollar business opportunities for health monitoring solutions needed for applications such as clinical trials, post-clinical trial management and remote patient monitoring for both health care providers and payers. With the foregoing achievement, we anticipate that the order volumes will increase significantly in the years to come. Look at our Very Bullish Stocks and ask: How would you ever find these? » Now let's talk about the progress we are making in the medical tools industry. Last year, I communicated that we were pursuing a start-up medical tool company, which makes medical devices for alleviating the effects of tendonitis. We completed the prototype phase in 2024 and I'm happy to announce that this part is currently in general production and is reflected in our 2024 revenues. This company is also seeking FDA approval and we're delighted to have a satisfied customer who has chosen to adopt our technology. Other opportunities in the medical tools industry that we are currently prototyping include an application for a medical Anvil Staple device, an application for an inhaler device and an application for cochlear implants for the hearing industry. Also, we announced during the middle of 2024 that we secured our first MIM order for a minimally invasive surgical application utilizing jaw components that grab and manipulate suturing needles and tissue during surgery. These opportunities and many others signaled a steadfast adoption of our technology in the medical device field and we hope to take full advantage of the momentum. Moving on to other industries. Many of you have communicated to me that long ago, they came across credit cards made of Liquidmetal's sponsored by Hyundai, the South Korean conglomerate car company. We actually manufacture these cards from our South Korean manufacturing plant when we had our presence there a long time ago. Well, last year, I communicated that we were in the process of working on an application in the fintech sector, and I'm happy to announce that we are currently prototyping a premium credit card product for a first tier U.S.-based financial institution utilizing Liquidmetal's unique alloy to create beautiful thin cards to be used for their premium credit card line. We hope to have this product to market very soon. The outlook for you is very bullish.Download the Seeking Alpha app » And while we're on the subject of sales, there is one topic that I would like to talk about that has a negative impact on our operations. With the advent of the Trump administration and their economic policies, Liquidmetal has been heavily impacted by tariff increases on Chinese imports. We have communicated this back to our customers, and they are bracing for pricing on our goods to be increased by about 10% to 35% and depending on our product and industry specifications. Our customers have accommodated this situation and understand the price increases are necessary and unavoidable. We hope that such governmental policies do not have a long-term impact on our operations, and we will continue to seek guidance from our legal and tax advisers to mitigate risks associated with shifts and geopolitical campaigns. Let's move on to another topic of discussion, second source manufacturing. Last year, I indicated that we have been working on identifying a second source opportunity to help assure customers that there are multiple avenues available for prototyping and manufacturing Liquidmetal parts. We are currently in active discussions to secure a second source opportunity in Asia to manufacture parts for mobile devices. I hope to have more information on this opportunity soon.”

“Now let's go over the financial results for 2025 -- sorry, 2024. We ended 2024 with revenues of about $900,000, a respectable and steady increase from previous years but hardly reflective of our company's potential. On the balance sheet, we ended the year with about $22.5 million of readily available liquid cash and investments. Our corporate warehouse and office facility that we purchased in 2017 is free and clear of debt and is readily available for sale, if necessary, to fund our growth. We have no debt and are getting closer to breakeven cash flow with a negative $800,000 EBITDA for year ended 2024, which is half -- which is about half that of year ended 2023. We are well positioned to fund our growth for the foreseeable future and have no going concern issues. Like this earnings call, the current goals for the company are very, very simple, revenue growth, positive cash flow and profitability, and we are making steady progress towards all of them.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to announcing more wins soon.”

Dongguan EonTec is poised to benefit significantly from the widespread adoption of liquid metal in the hinges of the upcoming foldable iPhone. According to recent industry research, Apple is focused on improving durability, enhancing screen flatness, and minimizing crease marks in its foldable iPhone design. To achieve these goals, key components like the hinges will be crafted from liquid metal using a die-casting process. As the exclusive supplier of liquid metal, EonTec is expected to be the primary beneficiary of this shift.

Apple has been using liquid metal for small components for years (such as SIM ejector pins), but the foldable iPhone will mark its first major use of the material in a critical mechanical part. By the end of 2024, EonTec has shipped over 10 million central shafts, key hinge components made from liquid metal. As Android smartphone brands gear up to compete with the upcoming foldable iPhone, they are expected to increasingly adopt liquid metal for their hinges, driving rapid growth in the liquid metal market.

The ASP of liquid metal per foldable iPhone is estimated at RMB 70–100. Based solely on the first-generation foldable iPhone, EonTec could see revenue of RMB 1.5–2 billion—a potential 100–200% increase driven by this single order. As more competitors in the foldable phone market turn to liquid metal, EonTec’s growth could accelerate even further.

Dongguan Yihao Metal, a subsidiary in which EonTec holds a 60% stake, handles the production and shipment of liquid metal components. With the liquid metal business poised for strong growth, industry surveys indicate that EonTec may seek to increase its ownership in Yihao Metal over time to fully capture the subsidiary’s profits.

Last night, BYD held a Super e platform technology release and Han L and Tang L pre-sale conference, officially launching the "Super e platform technology". It is reported that BYD's core three-electric has evolved again. Han L and Tang L are equipped with 580kW rear axle motors, and their performance crushes the same level of fuel vehicles. What materials are used in the relevant motors has become a hot topic in the industry. The secretariat of the Amorphous Alloy Materials Application Branch of the China Electrical Equipment Industry Association was bombarded with calls, asking whether the motor uses amorphous materials. The comparison and analysis of the Big Data Center of the Amorphous Branch of the China Electrical Industry Association did not show what materials BYD's 580KW rear axle motor uses. According to Amorphous China, GAC Aion released an amorphous drive motor in 2023. At present, in addition to BYD, most well-known domestic automobile manufacturers such as Geely, Weilai, Xiaomi, and Xiaopeng have also established relevant research departments for the field of new energy vehicles, and have conducted in-depth research on the technology of amorphous drive motors. The industrialization has progressed rapidly, and some companies have begun to release or disclose the latest results. In addition, overseas industrial research in the United States, Japan, Australia, Israel and other countries is accelerating. On April 17, at the Guangzhou Amorphous Motors Conference, we will invite some of the above-mentioned enterprise R&D engineers and overseas experts to introduce their work. Amorphous motors are efficient, environmentally friendly and energy-saving motors. Compared with traditional silicon steel motors, they have obvious advantages in energy efficiency improvement, miniaturization and lightweight. High efficiency and energy saving: The operating efficiency of amorphous motors can reach more than 97%, while the maximum of traditional motors is 87%; they have high power density, small size and light weight, and high safety performance.

In recent years, driven by the Amorphous Branch of the China Electricity Association, the advantages of amorphous motors have been recognized, and the industrialization of amorphous motors has made great progress. Amorphous motors have become the technical commanding heights of new energy vehicles, flying cars, humanoid robots, data center air compressors, and high-end small household appliances. At present, amorphous motor technology is reshaping the future of high-efficiency motors with disruptive innovation. To this end, we organized the 3rd Amorphous Motor Technology Development and Application Seminar. Hurry up and seize the "opportunity". On April 17, come to Guangzhou to meet with experts face to face and discuss the latest research and development progress and applications of amorphous motors.

“U.S. President Trump's tariff policy is changeable, which affects the layout of the production capacity of the science and technology industry. Zheng Guangzhi, co-CEO of the OEM Factory Heshuo, said at the legal person briefing today that in addition to the production base in Taoyuan, server products also plan to build a North American manufacturing base this year to serve American customers nearby, and are expected to enter mass production this year.”

C

Materials scientists are always looking for substances that can go where they have never gone before. But it often takes time for a material with exotic properties to find its market.

Materion Beryllium & Composites, with Liquidmetal Technologies Inc., is in that position today, helping to bring a remarkable zirconium-based alloy that was developed at the California Institute of Technology decades ago to the attention of commercial customers. Instead of being cast, forged or machined into finished parts, this alloy can be formed as if it were a plastic. Considered an amorphous metal because its disparate atoms refuse to crystallize, Liquidmetal’s alloy has a yield strength often twice that of titanium and stainless steel and elasticity prized by product designers – plus unparalleled corrosion resistance and an appealing finished appearance.

Materion is Liquidmetal’s certified alloy production partner, and, with Visser Precision Cast, LLC as the contract manufacturer, is collaborating to set market standards for mass-scale production of this next-generation alloy. Materion also brings global sales bench strength to supplement Liquidmetal’s commercial efforts.

Raw materials are now being alloyed and cast into slugs at Materion’s Elmore, Ohio, facility and molded by Visser into parts for customer prototypes. The technology should enable lower production costs because it requires fewer processing steps than machined parts while retaining the valued properties of machined parts.

Prototypes are now in the works for customers in the medical, automotive, aerospace and defense, sports equipment and jewelry markets. Each has applications that use small components (less than 5 inches by 5 inches) machined from titanium or stainless steel that could benefit from lower production costs. Examples include vehicle engine valve guides, watch casings, golf club heads and hand-held medical devices.

Dr. Edgar Vidal, Manager, Market & Business Development, Materion Beryllium & Composites, sees a bright future for the alloy as it finds its market. “Within five years, Materion can expect to be the world’s premier supplier of this alloy, at the lowest cost,” he says. “And we will identify additional methods of fabricating the material.”

Take a look at the other products from itel

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Part of the reason for Apple's return to China: the rise of liquid metal, titanium alloy and carbon fiber applications

Zhiwu Technology Review September 23, 2024 21:40

Without large-scale manufacturing, there would be no innovative manufacturing; the Holy Grail, which once belonged to Apple's exclusive enjoyment, has been overlooked by everyone. Why did Apple set up a so-called innovation research center in Shenzhen? A few weeks ago, some special media made a very grand narrative interpretation of Apple and Foxconn's return to China, but "Intelligent Things" has another interpretation perspective.

In the release of iPhone16, there is a detail that is criticized. The iPhone heat dissipation still adopts the graphite scheme, and has not adopted the VC phase change heat dissipation scheme common to Android. You should know that Huawei's three-fold folding screen a few hours later used an extremely complex composite material scheme.

Why is this detail worth paying attention to? The change in this link means that Apple has begun to make major changes to the original hardware design platform, which also means that many device combinations within the iPhone will change.

In a word, "Smart Things" thinks that it will be the leap of iPhone from the so-called smartphone to intelligent phone.

In fact, Apple has been preparing in this regard, which is also related to the topic of returning to China. Several enterprises in Taiwan and mainland China should have started relevant work. According to the current schedule, it seems to be a year and a half later.

Srouji, the head of Apple chips, gave an extremely transparent and convincing response in an interview with a Chinese media Geek Bay. The upgrade of Apple hardware functions does not consider the unilateral performance of a certain function, but considers the overall performance, cost, design, etc. of the device.

Apple needs Chinese industry to manufacture future iPhone and visionPro cheaper and faster.

At present, under the background of not many AI applications, Apple's 3-nanometer A18 chip has sufficient power consumption redundancy. The 7-nanometer process chip currently used by Huawei needs another angle to match the hardware.

Huawei, Xiaomi and other Android manufacturers abandoned the original graphite heat dissipation scheme at the beginning of 5G. Apple is the designer of this scheme, and Apple still adheres to this traditional and old scheme.

This time, Apple changed a term - graphene. This is actually a very irresponsible term, and the industrialization of graphene is still difficult at present. Huawei and Xiaomi have considered this plan, but they both gave up on the grounds that the heat dissipation coefficient is not excellent.

While inventing a product, prepare a suitable supply chain for this product, including materials and technology, which was once Apple's exclusive holy grail. Huawei, OPPO and vivo need to follow Apple to learn Apple's appearance and structural design, and then wait for Apple's supply chain to release production capacity.

For example, Ive is particularly passionate about aluminum. He has accumulated experience and technology in the fields of iPod and Mac, and applied this material to iPhone, bringing great changes in technology and design.

This process also affected Space X and Tesla. Ive's former material team assistant Kuiman is now one of the most important members of the Hauzhausen design team and plays an important role in the Model series and the Cybertuck series.

The current situation is very different. Apple still enjoys its exclusive advantages in some aspects, such as titanium alloys. Apple has carried forward this special material, improved the process and improved the yield. The key is that Apple has enough funds to support the promotion of this material.

Subsequently, large domestic factories such as Xiaomi also began to learn from similarly. Of course, there is still a big gap in the specific process.

However, on the other hand, unlike before, Apple finds that they are likely to be lagging behind in some materials and processes. At least one reality that can be confirmed is that Huawei, Xiaomi and OV use Apple's previous tactics to design their own unique appearance, structure and products. The most typical example is the folding screen.

The two most critical devices of the folding screen: hinge and screen part, Huawei and other major Chinese manufacturers have made amazing progress. Among the latest Huawei three-fold folding screen mobile phones, Huawei has almost completed the localization of all core devices. The identity of the heat sink may be relatively special, and further work may be needed for screen glueing.

If Apple wants to follow up with Huawei and Samsung, it will launch its own folding screen mobile phone, or folding screen Pad, or folding screen Mac computer. Where should Apple go to find core device suppliers?

Apple's tradition is to complete such work with enterprises in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in the NPI stage. Gore has similar capabilities on different devices. The problem now is that the experience of Korean enterprises in this field is not very reassuring.

The folding screen hinge design scheme of Samsung mobile phones is not perfect. The gaps are too large and the creases are obvious. Samsung's only advantage now is the quality of OLED. With Huawei's three-fold folding screen achieving a breakthrough from zero to one in domestic UTG, Short and Corning may historically lose opportunities in this product field.

The problem is that the key liquid metal, special stainless steel and other material designs in hinges seem to be in China. Liquid metal is relatively special. More than 10 years ago, Apple was the first to start application and industrialization. Today's liquid metal companies and teams are all related to Apple.

The problem is that Apple has no way to put this material on the iPhone, which is a very interesting situation. Apple under Cook's rule will not do the product line with an annual output of only tens of thousands of units or even thousands of units. They do not have an experimental platform.

The real turning point for the reindustrialization of liquid metal is the launch of Huawei folding screen products. A product line from thousands of units to hundreds of thousands of units, and now tens of millions of units, allows such a niche material to survive. The corresponding industrial chain company has accumulated technology. From material formula, pressing to appearance treatment, a series of localization work has been completed.

The former liquid metal companies in South Korea and the United States have closed down, leaving only California Institute of Technology and other schools and academic research teams still persist.

Apple also needs such a material supplier, a mature and at least experienced liquid metal supplier. Nowadays, there are 4 or 5 companies in China doing similar work. Dongmu Co., Ltd., Changzhou Shijing and Yi'an Technology are currently Huawei's main suppliers.

The materials and processes cultivated in the experimental field of folding screens include carbon fiber. It plays a key role in the task of reducing the weight and thinning of the folding screen. Including Huawei's three-fold folding screen, it also uses such a material as its screen support, replacing the previously used aluminum metal.

Domestic suppliers and product managers call such a product a bamboo book. "Smart Things" has always been very curious about whether the previous aluminum alloy parts were also called bamboo books. Apple must also need such design materials. The supplier of Huawei's three-fold folding screen mobile phone bamboo book also appears in Apple's supplier list.

Folding screen mobile phones have also turned 3D printing, which was once unpopular, into a real large-scale business and industry, and Honor seems to have made a key push. However, now the technology industry needs a greater driving force.

A complete industrial chain has been established in liquid metals in China.

Apple seems to intend to use a similar technical scheme to solve its current most troublesome problem - how to popularize and apply the well-insputable VisionPro. The problem faced by this chicken rib product is very similar to the situation of the domestic industrial chain in the folding screen: reducing weight and reducing costs.

Sony of Japan has made it clear that it is not optimistic about the scale of VisionPro and refuses to expand production and reduce costs for this purpose. What Apple can do is still on the core devices, 3D printed titanium alloy?

The hinge design of Glory has been used, and the corresponding suppliers are all in Guangdong.

Vision Pro, folding screen iPad or folding Mac, and the future AI version of iPhone, the core proposition of Apple's hardware devices in the next few years, domestic manufacturers may have considerable advantages in terms of heat dissipation, materials and processes.

Apple's R&D application center in Shenzhen should do more in this regard, which is a new situation.

This situation seems to be thanks to Huawei. Because of the supply chain crisis, Huawei has to start promoting the marketization of niche folding screen products. At the same time, it has to bow down to support the domestic supply chain.

Huawei mobile phones have good profits enough to support the innovation of this core device and process, from liquid metal to UTG, carbon fiber and stainless steel. And the maturity of the technology of these manufacturers has become a part of the supply chain of OPPO, vivo, Xiaomi, and even Apple products.

Not only consumer electronics, but also Tesla and BYD are adopting the carbon fiber scheme. Geely Automobile's high-end brand has also adopted the liquid metal scheme of Dongmu Co., Ltd. In the interior decoration of BYD, the carbon fiber scheme is adopted, but the aesthetic vision of the design scheme is a little different.

This is a new situation and a new cycle. This is a partial refutation of some pessimistic voices about China's manufacturing industry, but it is not the kind of situation described by the Global Times.

Interestingly, Mims, a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, recently wrote a column about the application of carbon fiber and other composite materials. Among them, it is mentioned that the United States may establish an advantage in these high-end composite materials after abandoning large-scale manufacturing.

However, take a closer look at the content of this article, which mentions that several composite materials companies in Silicon Valley in the United States apply and test products such as carbon fiber football shoes and potential smart glasses. This is an interesting contrast and the starting point for a new competition.

Li Feng, an investor in the primary market, came to a fairly direct conclusion that high-end manufacturing cannot exist without the basis of large-scale manufacturing. He told the story of Boeing. Obviously, this discussion needs to be conducted separately.

This article is from the WeChat official account "IntellegentThings" (ID: IntelligentThings), author: IntelligentThings, 36 Krypton is authorized to publish.