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New Titanium Alloy Bends the Rules

Posted by michael on from the joys-of-materials-science dept.

BinaryForces writes "According to Yahoo Takashi Saito and his colleagues at the Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories in Japan have developed a super alloy with unheard of strength and flexibility. It's not only light, but it can be stretched to more than 2.5 times its original length and return to its previous size. Heat causes almost no expansion. It can be bent and straightened repeatedly without becoming brittle. And the cool part is it was developed using high power computation instead of the traditional trial and error method. More details at Nature's website."

12 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. mwa ha ha by danratherfan · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Takashi Saito and his colleagues at the Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories in Japan have developed a super alloy with unheard of strength and flexibility. It's not only light, but it can be stretched to more than 2.5 times its original length and return to its previous size. "

    I allready have a material like that, but it isn't a metal. (Well it can feel like one)

    1. Re:mwa ha ha by orthogonal · · Score: 4, Funny

      I allready have a material like that, but it isn't a metal. (Well it can feel like one)

      Yeah.

      I guess the difference is, this miracle metal will have a use.

      And outside of your Mom's basement, no less.

      : )

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  2. Re:Interesting uses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny
    infinitely lighter

    That would make them flying cars.

  3. Other applications? by Tropaios · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The articles specifically mention use in ultralightweight springs, as one example, or other "precision instruments for use in rugged environments such as in outer space". My question is would this new alloy be so limited to these applications or could an alloy like this affect the design of buildings or bridges? Or have greater effect in making lightweight cars or other common products.

    I am neither a metallugist or an engineer, but I could only imagine this being used in a few years for just about everything much as "aircraft aluminum" is used in making canoes and ski poles.

    I'd think the uses for this could be very far reaching if it can be made affordable enough for common use. I see lighter more durable touring bikes, motorcycles, cars, planes from jets to gliders, to just about anything made of metal I'd suppose.

    Are there any reasons why this metal wouldn't be a good choice for other applications?

    1. Re:Other applications? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative
      Yes, there are limits. Metals that are "super strong" are usually flexible. This makes for a nice spring, but no good for something that needs stiffness. The springs of a car (made mention by a previous post) are a good candidate but not the chassis. A fexible chassis would throw alignment out.


      This same tradeoff is frequently debated in the biking world. Aluminium frames are light and very stiff, allowing power to be efficiently transfered. Titanium frames are even lighter, but flexy, giving a smoother ride but inefficient power transfer (some power is robbed to flex the metal).

  4. This is cool by dacarr · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Tey're already pondering more high-tech stuff, but what about optometry?

    My own glasses are that Flexon stuff that you can practically tie in knots, but it doesn't hold original shape *too* well and will break after doing it a few hundred times. Now imagine glasses frames that are made of this stuff.

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  5. Side effects by L.+VeGas · · Score: 3, Funny

    it can be stretched to more than 2.5 times its original length and return to its previous size

    Yeah, but do it too often and you'll go blind.

    --
    Best Windows Freeware
  6. Stretching, but what about bending? by wowbagger · · Score: 3, Insightful
    Stretching is interesting, but I wonder about this material's stiffness and bending forces - if you could make better springs, you could make:
    • Better bows (hey, I'm into archery)
    • Better shock absorbers
    • Better wind-up devices (third world radios, for example)


    And that's just a couple of things off the top of my head.

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  7. Re:Interesting uses by zero_offset · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Imagine, not needing springs anymore, the suspension links ARE the springs

    You'll always want springs, they're too useful to get rid of. And as you note, if you made other parts of the suspension do double-duty as springs, well, you still have springs.

    The important question isn't to speculate whether you can get rid of springs, it's to speculate whether you can make better springs, either by making them more efficient, or equally efficient with a weight or cost savings. Unfortunately the site is already slashdotted, so I don't know if the article mentions those kind of details, but if it doesn't, it's a huge assumption you're making. Many materials can return to a reasonable facsimilie of their original shape after deformation, but to do so repeatedly over time in a highly predictable and consistent fashion at rates in ranges suited to a suspension system... well, it's almost impossible to beat a plain old cheap steel coils. Even high-end SAE 9254 hot-formed steel racing-grade springs are only a couple hundred bucks for a set of four...

    This reminds me of the predictions (I know you're not predicting) that eventually we'd all be driving around in Nitinol ("memory metal") cars that after a fender bender could be popped back into shape with a blow dryer...

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  8. patents by tid242 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Are there any reasons why this metal wouldn't be a good choice for other applications?

    One word: Patents.

    Actually it's difficult to say what Toyota will do to make licensing difficult for 3rd parties. While they obviously have a vested interest in making competetors pay for it (if use it at all), probably much less so in keeping Girard Perregaux from using it in their chrongraphs, or Volkl building better skis with it. Point in fact, Toyota is the only company in the world with the infrastructure to scale-up their hybrid engines (actually the only company with a hybrid program of any commercial merit apart from Honda), yet they are talking about licensing the technology to their competetors (like GM), apparently in a manner fairly affordable...

    Have faith in the Nippon-jin :)

    -tid242

    --

    With a few exceptions, secrecy is deeply incompatible with democracy and with science. --Carl Sagan

  9. One Super Alloy? by JHMartin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    "...their titanium-based alloys exhibit "super" properties, such as ultrahigh strength and super elasticity. The new materials could prove useful..." (emphasis added)

    This sounds to me like they created multiple alloys with different properties and not a single miracle alloy with all of these properties. I may be wrong but since I cannot get through to read the nature story I can't tell for sure one way of the other.

  10. A really funny feeling. by g(zerofunk.org) · · Score: 4, Funny

    I have a really funny feeling that it all start with one of the guys in the lab looking at the computer and saying, "A keyboard, how quaint"; next thing you know we got transparent alumi,er, a new Titanium Ally.
    g