Business news : Liquidmetal Technologies Joins Forces with iGolf Technologies’ Development Group to Produce the World’s Next Generation Golf Clubs

US Patent No: 7,780,535

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

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--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 to www.liquidmetal.com.

Contacts

Liquidmetal Technologies, Inc.
Otis Buchanan / Media Relations / 949-635-2120
otis.buchanan@liquidmetal.com
or
Liolios Group, Inc.
Matt Glover or Michael Koehler / Investor Relations / 949-574-3860
LQMT@liolios.com