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Metal Velcro
RotJ writes "British scientists have developed technology that can grow structures up to 2 millimetres high and 0.2 millimetres in diameter on metal surfaces. Dubbed Surfi-Sculpt, it 'will act like ultra-strong Velcro to form much tougher joints between metals and lightweight composite materials'."
I think they would use it for applications in which you don't want to ever pull it apart. The mention of artificial joints in the article is a good example of that. I wonder if this is safer and/or more reliable than adhesives for use in medicine...
There are probably other industry applications where you want to join metals and composites also. I imagine that having a permanent strong bond is often more desirable than the ability to take it apart again.
I imagine repairing/replacing a space shuttle tile becomes a whole lot more realistic.
You can have a strong bonded metal velcro, but there could still has a weaker link somewhere along the chain of materials, the ones that are not bonded as tightly as the metal velcro.
To illustrate, imagine a piece of melted cheese is the velcro for 2 pieces of pastry in a burger, then the weakest link is between the pastry and the bread.
Hey, that's my password you are typing
I was quite excited to hear about this since I deal with the construction of devices which are exposed to thermal extremes. Unfortunately I can not elaborate much further. I can however say that when the contact surfaces of a construction are of the same material, thermally induced expansion and contraction are synchronized. It becomes a problem when you stick materials together which expand or contract with temperature at different rates. The stress causes fatigue which can lead to cracks. Think thermal protection tiles on re-usable spacecraft as one example. Another is the attachment of heat sinks, of the integrated circuit variety or otherwise.
"OUCH!!! I really wouldnt want to accidentally sit on that stuff. Think cactus spines that refuse to come out."
Could I be the first to patent the use of this stuff in walls and security-fences covered with microsocopic little spikes?
that the attachment of e.g. fibers in a composite to the metal protrusions does not depend on the bonding mechanism of a glue. The glue may age and fail, but the mechanical entanglement will not.
Time is Nature's way of keeping everything from happening at once... the bitch.
I think the word 'modern' in that sentence implies an 'earlier' version...
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
Literally pulling two Velcro blocks apart can be next to impossible. Usually it's a matter of peeling Velcro apart... which should work here too if one of the bondees (the "composite", presumably) is flexible.
Seeing bad movies only encourages them. Watch responsibly
The 'teasing' I think is a fair description, since the article itself uses the word to describe the process:
So, in your opinion I may not be either interesting or informative, but I am 50% correct. As were you. You're welcome too.
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
Space Shuttle heat tiles are ceramic, not metal. Metal would tend to conduct heat, not insulate from it.
But the wing chassis is metal, is it not? Doesn't the article say that the technique can be used to bond metal with other compounds?
I guess where there's a multi-billion dollar will, there's a way...
...and a beneficiary.
even half right, and we're not competing here.
You paraphrased the article inaccurately, attributing the commercial potential you're talking about to a technology that isn't described. Your defense is that someone else previously pointed it out so that it's a "fair cop", and that Mick Hamer used the word "teasing" to describe the process to his intended audience in the article he wrote.
The "fast to create" that you speak of is a direct result of the technology you misrepresented. Your path does not lead to the "why", and that's unfortunate, because the why explains why the process may lead to incredible gains in:
When you figure out how to do it with a laser, let us know (with a rotating crystal perhaps), and if it is a commercially viable technology discussed on slashdot, I'll bitch and whine when the first poster misses the point entirely. This isn't personal. I just couldn't pass on the need to set you straight because almost everyone will read the first post.
Slashdot is my Mercer Box.