Slashdot Mirror
Making Small Change
dimnet writes "The Quarter Shrinker uses a technique called high velocity electromagnetic metal forming, or "Magneforming". This technique was originally developed by the aerospace industry, and has been popularized by Aerovox, Grumman, and Maxwell. It involves discharging a high energy capacitor bank through a work coil to generate a very powerful, rapidly changing magnetic field which then interacts with and "forms" the metal to be fabricated. It only works with metals of relatively high conductivity, such as copper or aluminum alloys, although it will work to a more limited extent with sheet steel...." The site has some awesome pictures of small metal objects which have been victimized. [Update: 02/22 by michael : Note that the entire original site has been taken down and replaced with banner ads - however, there are working mirror links in the comments below.]
Believe it or not, the U.S. Federal reserve already plans on using this tool to counteract the damaging force of inflation on our country's economy. In fact, according to high-level sources that I cannot name for obvious reasons, the first of these new coins will come out in April, for Delaware. Coins will then follow in step in the order the new coins were introduced. Similar plans are in order for the new Sackagawea (sp?) dollar; however, the serrated edge is adding numerous complications to the project. It is hoped that the new, deflated coins will offset inflationary pressures... or something.
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Friends don't let friends misuse the subjunctive.
Try this link or this link istead...
Read my diary.
This technique was used in the 1960's on parts of the Saturn V rocket. It was ideal for shaping the super thin aluminum pressure vessels at the front of each stage (and, in the case of the first stage) the back pressure vessels (the different in temperature between the kerosene and the LOX was so high that they couldn't use integral tanks).
Engineers used to demonstrate how this worked without touching anything by putting pieces of tissue paper between the former and the surface being formed. After they were done, they would take out the unscarred piece of paper and show it.
The Saturn CII stage needed to get the forward tank pressure vessels into the basic shape to be magnaformed, but it was tricky because they didn't have anything that could create perfect curved pie slices that would be welded together to make the item, so they suspended the pieces of metal in water tanks and set off explosives. This allowed them to shape the metal using the shockwaves.
Sweet.
some "asked slashdot" how to destroy data on a hard drive. I'm guessing this would do it.
Yep, I never spell check.
More incorrect spellings can be found he
either that, or that data would be highly compressed.
"This is not a company that appears to be bothered by ethical boundaries."
Attorney General Mike Hatch on Microsoft
One use of this metal forming machine was to compact planetary gear rings from powdered metal. Before sintering, the density at the inner surface was 6.76 g/cc. The density for this steel in a "fully solid" state was 6.77 g/cc. Compare this to 6.6 g/cc, about the best that traditional hydraulic press powdered metal forming forges could do. And it only took 40 milliseconds.
Wow.
There was so much force involved, we were constantly breaking coils, with very explosive effects. You could hear a clap of thunder in the other building across the street.
It's amazing how Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering can combine for some very frightening effects.
Oh, yeah, they also used to be a Star Wars research firm. They still have a working rail gun in the lab. :)
www.eissq.com/BandP.html Ball and Plate System. Amuse your friends. Crush your enemies.
They've figured out how to turn American money into Canadian money! Just shrink 40%, kill off 40% of its value.
Does it come with a crooked faced puppet screaming on about how it's from the best country on Earth?
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
This is old school tech. I mean, c'mon, haven't you seen "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids"?
Speaking of that awful movie, does anyone remember the sequel, "Honey, I Blew Up the Kids"? Heh. I was driving by the local theatre a few years ago, when I saw a most unfortunate gaffe on their billboard. It seems they were showing the equally awful "3 Ninjas" at the same time, advertised on the line below, but they didn't have enough room to complete the title of HIBUTK... So the sign actually displayed the following:
I laughed so hard I almost wrecked the car
Yeah, Yeah... -1 offtopic... I know.
GATES: MOVE 'ALCHIN'.
I take drugs seriously.
Dale Travous, a professional artist in Seattle, was messing with Boeing Surplus discharge caps around 1990/1991. I told him about an old article in Rev. Phy. Inst. where the authors were crushing soupcans with a 1-turn copper coil. Dale came up with a device which he called... um... "the quartershrinker." He used it for several months to shrink pennies, then found that quarters were slightly more impressive, and the name "quartershrinker" was the one that stuck.
It was written up by Gary Hawkins in the old "Extraordinary Science" magazine published by the now-defunct Int'l Tesla Society. His technique was identical to the one used by Bert Hickman.
So is this a case of "100th monkey syndrome?" More likely the "quartershrinker" idea was spread by word of mouth.
Another venerable website for electrodynamic shennanigans:
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