MAKING A COMEBACK - LiquidMetal Golf

[GolfSpy_X]

Liquidmetal Technologies Joins Forces with iGolf Technologies' Development Group to Produce the World's Next Generation Golf Clubs

 

Developers of the Golf Industry's Most Advanced Technologies and Applications to Use Liquidmetal Alloy to Create Innovative New Metalwoods with Unmatched Performance

 

Liquidmetal® Technologies Inc. (LTI) (OTCQB: LQMT), the leading developer of amorphous alloys and composites, has partnered with iGolf Technologies, Inc., a leading original design manufacturer (ODM), to introduce the next generation of golf club design. The clubs will feature the “pure energy transfer” of Liquidmetal amorphous alloy, which allows for long, forgiving shots off the tee, with more precise overall performance.

 

iGolf Technologies will leverage its development group, PERFORMAX Golf & Composite and PADERSON Composite USA, to design driver and fairway metalwood club heads featuring a Liquidmetal alloy face. This group has designed and manufactured some of the industry's most innovative and superior performing products for many of the golf industry's most famous brands.

 

LTI will manufacture the Liquidmetal club face parts, while all other structures, including the global assembly operation, will be assembled at PERFORMAX's state-of-the-art manufacturing complex located in Qingyuan, China. The complex is the manufacturing center for many of the industry's biggest golf club brands. The development group will then offer their proven prototyped designs to golf club manufacturers seeking a competitive edge in the multi-billion dollar golf equipment market.

 

“We couldn't be more excited about our new development partnership with Liquidmetal Technologies, as a material transcendence is finally within grasp,” said Jason Horodezky, president and CTO of iGolf Technologies. “Golf club faces designed to optimize the revolutionary Liquidmetal alloy will absorb less energy upon impact than traditional stainless steel or titanium clubs. This unique characteristic allows for virtually perfect energy transfer to the ball, resulting in improved trajectory and greater carry distance.”

 

The new iGolf designs will benefit from a third-generation Liquidmetal alloy and manufacturing processes introduced by LTI earlier this year. These advancements offer maximum performance without sacrificing durability or strength, and thereby promising the game's best driver and woods.

 

“Experts agree that the superior hardness and elasticity of our Liquidmetal amorphous alloy makes it the ideal material for golf clubs,” said Tom Steipp, Liquidmetal Technologies' president and CEO. “Given the positive reports from PGA golfers of our previous generation of Liquidmetal clubs, combined with Jason's extraordinary talent for innovative design using our third generation of Liquidmetal alloy, we're confident golfers using our new Liquidmetal clubs will experience a tremendous boost to their game.”

 

To support the anecdotal reports, iGolf plans to scientifically demonstrate the distance advantage of the Liquidmetal clubs through robotic testing and publish the results in a leading trade journal.

 

About Jason Horodezky and the iGolf Technologies Group

 

As a leading golf club design engineer, with a specialty in structural mechanics and impact dynamics, Jason Horodezky has served for more than 20 years as a strategic original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partner to the golf equipment industry. He has built a vast, capable network of manufacturing resources to support volume production for cutting edge and innovative products. Horodezky has led numerous innovation and design teams in developing a robust and dynamic array of demonstrably superior clubhead and shaft technologies that power many of the industry's most unique and commercially successful products.

 

Horodezky also serves as vice president, CTO and managing partner of PERFORMAX Golf & Composite, and as president, CTO and managing partner of PADERSON Composite USA. iGolf, PERFORMAX, and PADERSON operate from a highly instrumented and equipped 6,000-square-foot facility located in Palm Desert, California. The facility houses essential R&D and product performance testing faculties and serves as the U.S. corporate headquarters of iGolf, PERFORMAX and PADERSON.

 

Horodezky founded iGolf Technologies to serve the OEM category directly and as the exclusive ODM/OEM and aftermarket affiliate of PERFORMAX and PADERSON, respectively. While strategically aligned, PERFORMAX and PADERSON operate independently. Since 1993, PERFORMAX has been an industry leading ODM/OEM of advanced material construction in clubheads and technology partner to many of golf's most famous brands.

 

Established in 1988, PADERSON is one of the largest ODM/OEM golf shaft manufacturers in the world by unit volume. PADERSON is a foremost expert in continuous fiber shaft manufacturing filament wound production. It designs and manufactures high performance technically advanced composite materials for its golf shafts, and remains one of the few shaft manufacturers that produce and manufacture a significant portion of its finished products internally.

 

Working in partnership with or on behalf of many of the sporting world's most famous brands, like HEAD Sport AG, Horodezky has been awarded more than 12 utility patents accounting for over 50 patent numbers worldwide (USPTO, PCT States and Taiwan). Most notable was the IP developed exclusively for HEAD Technology GmbH, leading to the issuance of U.S. Patent No. 7,780,535 entitled, "Method and Apparatus for Active Control of Golf Club,” which covers a method and apparatus for actively controlling the impact between a club head and a golf ball.

 

Liquidmetal Technologies

 

Rancho Santa Margarita, California-based Liquidmetal Technologies, Inc. is the leading developer of bulk alloys and composites that utilize the performance advantages offered by amorphous alloy technology. Amorphous alloys are unique materials that are distinguished by their ability to retain a random structure when they solidify, in contrast to the crystalline atomic structure that forms in ordinary metals and alloys. Liquidmetal Technologies is the first company to produce amorphous alloys in commercially viable bulk form, enabling significant improvements in products across a wide array of industries. For more information, go towww.liquidmetal.com.

 

 

[03trdblack]

How can this statement be true given the limitations by the USGA?

 

“Golf club faces designed to optimize the revolutionary Liquidmetal alloy will absorb less energy upon impact than traditional stainless steel or titanium clubs. This unique characteristic allows for virtually perfect energy transfer to the ball, resulting in improved trajectory and greater carry distance.”

 

The cap the USGA allows was a .83 COR value which means 83% effective energy transfer. A perfect 1.00 COR would be impossible illegal.

[Blade]

How can this statement be true given the limitations by the USGA?

 

“Golf club faces designed to optimize the revolutionary Liquidmetal alloy will absorb less energy upon impact than traditional stainless steel or titanium clubs. This unique characteristic allows for virtually perfect energy transfer to the ball, resulting in improved trajectory and greater carry distance.”

 

The cap the USGA allows was a .83 COR value which means 83% effective energy transfer. A perfect 1.00 COR would be impossible illegal.

That's the first thing I thought of as well. The technology sounds exciting, but how can it dramatically increase the performance of equipment and stay "legal" when everything is pretty much maxed out already?

[apprenti23]

Like a bad penny...

[Ice]

It better be conforming, because non-conforming stuff doesn't sell. Good luck.

[Joe Golfer]

To those mentioning a COR of 1.00, well that's actually impossible, so when they use the word "perfect", they aren't referring to a 100% rebound in the speed that the object hits the face and then returns.

In addition, COR isn't being used anymore to define legal or illegal.

What is being used is called "Characteristic Time". Can be googled for the explanation of how it works.

That said, I'm surprised that LiquidMetal is focusing on woods.

Their original foray into the market many years ago was irons.

Their main focus at that time seemed to be the "feel" of the irons. Supposedly this amorphous liquid metal gave a better feel than any cast iron or forged iron, according to their selling points.

This "liquid metal" gave great feel, but unfortunately for them, the price of the irons was not in line with other irons, so they didn't have success in the marketplace.

People aren't going to pay a lot extra for something that is unproven, which was essentially the battle that Liquidmetal irons faced.

And if it still is going to cost more, I don't think folks are going to purchase it this time either.

The price point is going to have to be in line with other clubs, and then have a marketing campaign that somehow gives actual evidence of superiority over things like Carpenter Steel faces (in fairway woods) or Titanium.

[golf-nut]

It better be conforming, because non-conforming stuff doesn't sell. Good luck.

 

Completely agree. Walking the PGA show I tell you there are no shortage of the signs with outrageous distance increase claims. I wish someone would go back 10 years and add these all up because every course would be obsolete. TM still claiming +17 yards but Callaway had signs everywhere with +31 from the Tee, +32 from the Fairway and +13 from the rough. So this is just right there with it for me.

[ss900]

Completely agree. Walking the PGA show I tell you there are no shortage of the signs with outrageous distance increase claims. I wish someone would go back 10 years and add these all up because every course would be obsolete. TM still claiming +17 yards but Callaway had signs everywhere with +31 from the Tee, +32 from the Fairway and +13 from the rough. So this is just right there with it for me.

 

That goes true with the balls. If the distance keeps getting farther you should be over shooting every hole!