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New Metal That's Full of Holes
anoopsinha writes "Wired reports: 'Caltech researchers have made a metallic glass-based foam that is stronger than traditional metal alloys, providing industry with a revolutionary lightweight material.' Currently the applications envisioned for metallic foams are in automobile and aircraft crumple zones, which absorb the impact of collisions, and in artificial bone. Some imagine using the foam to create structures in space."
Aircraft crumple zones....
That can't be good
At first I thought the "dept." was unnecessarily pessimistic, but the name "bubbloy" alone is enough to doom this stuff.
So, we are one step closer to transparent aluminum, aren't we?
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
In my high school years, (early 70s) my dream was to set up an orbiting factory making foam steel, flat (radial gradient density glass) lenses, and hollow ball bearings. Of course bubbloy apparently doesn't need to be manufactured in zero G, and my (or anyone else's) factory isn't up there.
IIWIC, (If I Were In Charge) I'd declare a tax holiday on 50+ mile content in order to promote greater space access. I might exclude satellite communications relays, since that industry is already well developed and I'm trying to foster new development. OTOH maybe not, since more development opportunities might arise.
The living have better things to do than to continue hating the dead.
Aerogel is 99.8% holes. Check out the photos of a thin sheet insulating crayons from a blowtorch!
Nobody told me Microsoft opened a steel mill?
"Holy rusted metal, Batman!"
Never was it more appropriate.
Indeed, bubbloy will be part of the product line of Liquidmetal Technologies, which is famous for adding spring to golf clubs and tennis rackets, but also develops material
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
(oops...screwed up the post...stupid enter key)
From the Wired article:
"Indeed, bubbloy will be part of the product line of Liquidmetal Technologies, which is famous for adding spring to golf clubs and tennis rackets, but also develops material"
So, when can we expect to see the T-1000 added to their product line?
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
Researchers are debating over the name for this new metal. Currently, the top two contenders are "Mithril" and "Adamantium" :-)
...welcome our repetitive "can this be used to make a space elevator?" posts.
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
Does this mean that scientists are starting to understand the materials they collected at Roswell?
Keep that crap away from me, bub.
...like a steel sponge.
(source: the hilarious "Use Bizarre Metaphors" idea at the Halfbakery)
...
The blurb Timothy posted (or approved and passed on) said: "Currently the applications envisioned for metallic foams are in automobile and aircraft crumple zones, which absorb the impact of collisions..."
This sentence is taken from the article, but refers to the old-style metal foams, which have been tested for decades, NOT the 'glassy' metal foam discussed in the article. Most of the article explains why the new glassy foam is different from the old ones, and lists properties, like rigidity and high elastic energy return, which make it specifically unsuited for use in crumple zones. The article itself says:
"Given the bounce bubbloy would have off a wall or tree, Veazey said it might not be suitable by itself as a crumple zone."
Hitting a wall and bouncing creates up to twice the change in momentum, and potential for damage to humans, as a 'hit and stick impact' (e.g. wrapping your car around a tree or hitting the concrete after a 100 story fall). The impact would admittedly be mitigated by being spread out over several milliseconds vs. nearly instanteous, but "high elastic energy RETURN" is the opposite of an "energy ABSORBING crumple zone".
Similarly, a high rigidity, high energy return, bone replacement would place an extreme stress on its anchors and surrounding real bone. You want a material that absorbs energy as it flexes, rather than returning is as a one-two punch (initial impact and then sharp recoil in the opposite direction) The energy absorbed by the flexing of a good bone substitute should be released as heat (it takes a lot of kinetic energy to make rather little heat) instead of crumpling [mechanical deformation] like a Mercedes front end.
This glassy metallic foam has many potentially interesting applications. It's a shame that the blurb picked up on two applications where the old foams look more promising than the topic of the article
Did anyone else read this and "hear" the name of this material as
BUBBLE BOY ???
(Episode 47): Jerry is spotted at a restaurant and asked to visit a boy who lives inside a plastic bubble. Jerry, Elaine, George, and his girlfriend, Susan, are supposed to spend the weekend at Susan's father's cabin. Since the cabin is near the boy's home, Jerry agrees to stop by. Arriving early, George quarrels with the bubbleboy while playing Trivia Pursuit, almost killing him. Kramer and Jerry's girlfriend go swimming near the cabin while they wait for the others. He leaves a cigar burning that sets the cabin on fire. Air Date: 10/7/92
I guess I spend too much time playing with this stuff...
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
With a closed-cell foam, I'd imagine that air pressue becomes relevant. If the cells are full of air, what would exposing it to vacuum do? Likewise, if it's manufactured in a vacuum, would the cells be empty, or would they contain gasses that are a by-product of the manufacturing process? "Make it in the medium that it is to be used" is an obvious answer, but what if it's used to make the walls of a space structure? The outer cells would be exposed to vacuum, the inner cells to atmospheric pressure.
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