A couple of patents just released by the 'US Patent and Trademark Office'This week confirms Apple's continued use of Liquidmetal, which you can see here No. 9,101,977. The Cupertino company does not yet employ this Liquidmetal technology in any salable product, but patents like these suggest it could do so in the future.
Apple expanded the exclusive license with Liquidmetal until 2016, which Liquidmetal has used to make the SIM eject tool of the iPhone, a simple and incredibly robust tool, but the patent applications that have come out today suggest that it is working on doing much more with the material.
In a patent, titled "Method of using pre-alloy core shell structure to make alloys in a controlled manner", (Sorry for the translation), Apple describes a method to create a material composed of mass metal glasses (BMG) and other metal or metallic alloy for combine the best of the properties of each.
Apple's patent suggests three different casting variations, including a BMG core with metal shell, with a metal soul and a BMG coating, and metal alloy / BMG.
These materials are designed to combat the existing problems that can arise when BMG is cast, as well as the formation of crystals within the metal when cooling rates are not optimal. When this happens, the material loses all its mechanical properties.
Apple's second patent, titled "Cold Chamber Die Casting of Amorphous Alloys Using Cold Crucible Induction Melting Techniques", details a BMG melting method using a cold crucible induction.
Patents are a bit complicated to understand, at the beginning of the post you can go to the patent in English. Apple has been exploring the possibilities of using Liquidmetal, but we are yet to see it enter a product line of the company. But it's easy to see why Apple might be looking for alternatives to the aluminum that is used today.
While it has its own advantages, aluminum can be scratched and dented relatively easily, and have one tendency to bend, as demonstrated on the iPhone 6 Plus. However, Apple has begun to use the 7000 series aluminum, what is much stronger than standard aluminum.