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KMW Blog Sep 2, 2015: What is the big deal about aluminum and Apple products?


Posted: Sep 2, 2015JK: What is the big deal about aluminum and Apple products?
Published: Sep 2, 2015Misc: Apple Event: New Apple Watch Bands, 16 GB iPhones confirmed with 7000 series aluminum
There has been a fair bit of buzz about the look and feel of Apple's new iPhone 6s that goes on sale on September 18, with speculation about whether Apple will continue to use 6000 series aluminum for the phone case shell or switch to the 7000 series aluminum alloy already used by the Apple Watch. I'm talking about the case of the phone itself, whose vulnerability to bending, denting and scratching has become the cult focus of online video makers, not those expensive third party cases people buy to keep their phone from breaking and which make it bulkier. Another hot topic is the potential colors and textures of the iPhone which is as much a fashion statement as a functional tool. How well a phone case surface will take and hold colors and textures is apparently not a simple technical problem. On September 2, 2015 Mark Gurman of 9To5Mac published the winner of the debate in a blog post, Apple Event: New Apple Watch Bands, 16 GB iPhones confirmed with 7000 series aluminum. For a detailed discussion of the issues surrounding different phone case materials check out the June 18, 2015 DailyTech Blog by Jason Mick who argues the 6000 series will prevail. An August 19, 2015 MacRumors Blog presents an analysis of the phone case material which points out that it includes a 10 micron thick layer of anodized aluminum oxide to protect against corrosion. The main alloying input for series 7000 is 4%-6% zinc, a very cheap input.

The obsession with aluminum alloy as a phone case material is fascinating, but it has finally dawned on me why Clean TeQ's latest corporate presentation includes an Apple phone case photo among others for aluminum-scandium alloy applications. Each series of aluminum alloys has certain properties in turn tweaked by numerous sub-series variations, which is why the series get described as 5XXX, 7XXX and so on. Apple has apparently created its own special 7XXX series. But what strikes me as really obvious is that a simple aluminum-scandium alloy would be a much better phone case solution because it can be thinner and is naturally corrosion resistant. Of course, adding 0.1%-0.5% scandium would cost more than adding cheap zinc, and with cost of paramount concern, one might conclude that $2,000/kg scandium oxide will never make it into an Apple phone case. One has to wonder, however, what it costs to turn a bunch of cheap ingredients into an extruded bar of 7XXX series aluminum. And we should also consider the fabrication cost associated with the new iPhone 6 case which has to be machined from the raw material, and then have the anti-corrosion layer created on the final shape. What would that cost in comparison to fabricating the case from an aluminum-scandium alloy series which is already resistant to corrosion and need not suffer the waste loss from machining? I do not know, but I suspect aluminum-scandium alloy might end up equal or cheaper in total cost, and if it bestows greater functionality on how the phone case looks, feels and protects, it is a no-brainer to become the basis for a future smart phone model.

Why does Apple not already use an Al-Sc alloy? Well, current global scandium supply from a variety of unreliable and non-scalable by-product sources is only 10-15 tonnes annually that is already sopped up by applications that can handle prices above $2,000 per kg. But if Scandium International Mining Corp starts producing 36 tonnes per year in 2017 from Nyngan, and Clean TeQ Holdings Ltd starts producing 42 tonnes in 2018, the situation changes. Apple and the other smart phone makers do not need to put Al-Sc alloy based components through a certification process as the aircraft industry will have to do. They could become an instant source of demand, layering Al-Sc alloy into premium models according to available supply. Would they do an offtake agreement in advance? Probably not, but we should keep in mind that with regard to consumer products, there is a lot of discretion in the choice of materials, and if proof is on the table that scandium is available from a primary, scalable supply, there will be a lineup of end-users eager to do take or pay offtake agreements..

 
 

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