By Adam Gifford
A New Zealand-developed magnesium-coating process is about to revolutionise the world of portable computing.
Onehunga-based Magnesium Technology has signed a contract with Gatech, a Taiwanese die-caster which has a $US30 million ($57.7 million) contract to supply magnesium cases for Acer and IBM laptop computers.
Managing director John MacCulloch said Magnesium Technology, a firm owned by himself and Auckland investor David Ross, stood to make millions of dollars in sales revenues from the deal.
The Materials Performance Technology division of Crown Research Institute Industrial Research, which discovered the technology, would also get a share of licence revenue.
The number of machines to be made using magnesium frames coated with the process "is telephone numbers, it's enormous", Mr MacCulloch said.
Magnesium must be coated to prevent it reacting with the air and other metals. Coating techniques have been complex and expensive.
The New Zealand method consists of dipping the parts in a secret electrolyte soup and turning the power on, coating the metal in an impervious oxide layer of whatever colour the manufacturer wants.
Mr MacCulloch said his firm was supported by grants from Technology New Zealand to refine the process.
A magnesium case for a laptop, cellphone or other electronic device will be thinner and lighter than a plastic equivalent. It also shields electromagnetic radiation - plastic must be coated to screen it out - and conducts heat away from the chips.
"Heat is the limiting factor on design. The industry is moving away from plastic, which is an insulator, to magnesium," Mr MacCulloch said.
He said the deal with Gatech was non-exclusive, and a number of other computer manufacturers are lining up to talk.
Magnesium Technology has also sold licences to a manufacturer of parts for Mercedes cars, an Israeli electronics company and other companies in Australia, the United States and Austria.
While Gatech chairman Paul Cheng is a New Zealand resident, the initial contact came through a presentation Mr MacCulloch gave to a metals conference in Singapore last year.
Magnesium millions
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