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Morphing Metals
aarondubrow writes "Imagine a metal that 'remembers' its original, cold-forged shape, and can return to that shape when exposed to heat or a magnetic pulse. Like magic out of a Harry Potter novel, such a metal could contract on command, or swing back and forth like a pendulum. Believe it or not, such metals already exist. First discovered in 1931, they belong to a class of materials called 'shape memory alloys (SMA),' whose unique atomic make-up allows them to return to their initial form, or alternate between forms through a phase change."
What was the purpouse of this summary?
Are we to expect a slew of articles about 80 year old discoveries now?!
SMAs have been well known about for decades, well written about for decades, just what is the point if this article?!
People should not be afraid of their governments - Governments should be afraid of their people.
Imagine a carriage that propels itself without the need for horses, fuelled by otherwise useless petroleum spirits. Like magic from some Jules Verne novel, such a carriage could carry a family for hundreds of miles at high speed without tiring, and could revolutionise transportation. Belive it or not, such carriages already exist....
This is a substitute for a clever sig that fits within the maximum number of characters.
SMAs are not new.
Imagine not wearing your feet down on the gravel, rock and teeth on the floor by putting some skin on them. Now imagine buying those without waging war. Now imagine there are still places in the world where this could be considered news, but lets stop right there. Morphing metals? Are we to expect a lesson on how bricks where invented eons ago?
But not here, not on /. so please cut the crap, i'm not here to learn about something even teens understand. (ofcourse only if they exhibit any interest for that knowledge, thus making the point there is no point in pointing the pointless crap out that was a point over 50 years ago and isn't a point anymore)
Hivemind harvest in progress..
Shape memory metals seem to come into the public consciousness every decade or so only to fade back into obscurity just as quickly.
Amazing stuff! A couple more decades and we'll have finally moved away from valve-based electronics, too! This truly is an era of change.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
I didn't know that the Terminator movies were written by this Harry Potter person.
you have been nothing but disappointment lately... dupes, shitty summaries, non-stories, Apple Apple Apple, and late to the punch more often than not. What happened to you, man? you used to be so cool...
The point:
"These shape memory materials have many applications," said Raymundo Arroyave, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Texas A&M. "Despite being heavily studied for the past twenty to thirty years, most of these materials are limited to work at relatively low temperatures."
In other words, yes - the materials have existed for ages and people know that (anyone ever worn memory-flex glasses, for instance?), but there is now work underway to make the substances more useful in more difficult conditions - TFA mentions aerospace and automotive.
Cheers,
Ian
“These shape memory materials have many applications,” said Raymundo Arroyave, assistant professor of mechanical engineering and materials science at Texas A&M. “Despite being heavily studied for the past twenty to thirty years, most of these materials are limited to work at relatively low temperatures.” “This new class of high temperature shape memory alloys can be used in sensing and actuation at temperatures upwards of 200 Celsius, which is very important for the aerospace and the automotive industries,” Arroyave said.
IOW what's new (or rather isn't actually yet) is "it works at higher temperatures". And that they are trying to find the new materials by simulating them with a supercomputer. Or so they hope, because "Computational materials science has a reputation for overselling and underperforming, according to Arroyave, but by all measures, the field is maturing by leaps and bounds."
Fandroids hate facts.
Slashdot would have chosen a more appropriate slogan, but "olds for nerds" just didn't sound quite right
Really old news. When I was a child like 30 years ago, I saw a TV science show about that. They rolled up a spoon that was made of that metal, threw it into water, cold or hot, don't remember and it went back into its original shape.
I remember being able to buy pieces of this stuff from Edmund Scientific when I was a kid back in the 70's.
You mean like those bendable glasses (spectacles) are made of? The ones you can sit on and not break. The ones that have been around for long enough to be known by the layman.
Brain surgery - it's not rocket science!
MIGHTY MORPHING POWER METALS
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Like magic out of a Harry Potter novel? Come on, It's clearly like T1000 technology out of Terminator 2!
Harry Potter isn't exactly came to mind first while reading the above.
Wasn't that the kind of material witnesses reported finding at the Roswell crash site?
Imagine a car made out of this kind of metal. Someone ploughs into you, tow the car home, apply a flame and presto! off you go again.
Imagine an OS that doesn't need virus protection, doesn't crash, and is completely customisable. Imagine a browser that doesn't beg for viruses and follows a consistent set of standards between release rather than arbitrarily making new rules each time. Imagine software that is free and useful that doesn't come from some shady site that you've never heard of. Believe it or not, such software already exists. It's called FOSS, and an entire toolchain has been built with it allowing all sorts of new and powerful applications.
There are 10 commandments: 01)Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God 10)Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.Matt22:34-40
Wow, slow news day. All the way back to 1931 for this story!
America, Home of the Brave.
Snake! That key is actually three keys in one!
"In other news: your known anonymous guy recently discovered hot water, he did so by accidentally leaving a bucket 'o metal near his fireplace 'n stuff inside 'o it. Asked for comments he replied he does indeed love the hot water, he's thinking to sell it for double price normal unhot water at the local neanderthal market."
Perhaps they thought it was roughly half-past seven in the evening?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
so the T-1000 is not that far off now?
My Sleeper chamber worked??? 0_o
It's not sourcery, it's Technology!!!
This is indeed old news.
Also, I am posting because I have just done another one of these fat-fingered mis-moderations. It's surprsingly hard to un-do moderations. There's this thing where you have to wait a while after you hit "reply", and there's the lameness filter. There's also the karma hit from pointless posts, of course, but that at least has some deterrent value, and encourages more care in dishing out the mod points. One hopes.
2*3*3*3*3*11*251
It was also rediscovered in 1995 when a T-1000 was sent by Skynet back in time to kill John Connor, the future leader of the Human Resistance.
I knew a machinist in the physics machine shop at my university who claimed memory metal was really hard to work with. It gums up the cutting tools and creates burrs like crazy. If you try to drill a hole in the stuff you have to be really careful or you'll break the bit.
Religion is poison to rationality, and we lose sight of that at our own peril. -- Lurker2288
Mighty Morphing Mutant Metals would be a nice title for the next japanese action series, without those pesky turtles and rangers.
Shape-memory alloys have been around for decades, but there are almost no applications for them. Yes, they change shape when heated, and return to the original shape when cooled. So do bimetallic strips, used in thermostats since 1880 or so. There are some toy engines based on this. Some flapping-wing devices have been built in toy size, but they're not strong enough to take off. There was some NASA enthusiasm for using this effect to control minor airfoils on aircraft, but that never went very far.
As actuators, SMAs are inefficient. You can run a current through an SMA wire, and after a while, it changes shape. That's because of resistive heating raising the temperature of the metal. Most of the electrical energy goes into waste heat, so this is far less efficient than an ordinary motor or solenoid. Then you have to wait for it to cool down, so cycle times are slow. Some small valves have been built; with SMA wire in liquid, the cool-down times are fast enough to be useful.
Take a metal that has been widely used by the Navy for opening and closing valves and make it public property. Then have industry make wires for ladies bras and eye glass frames and bury the potential of the material under a dark rock in a dark stream somewhere. The idea that Nitinol could be used to make car doors and fenders that were self healing or a connecting rod that would turn a crank without a piston being needed and the truth just might become apparent. In essence Nitinol hides in plain sight. It is a world class substance delegated to unimportant roles by industries that avoid change like the plague.
Manufacture a car, then crush it into a small cube, ship it and then put it 30 seconds in a giant oven to restore it back into its car form.
Thought maybe it was an old article and an idiot submitter, but alas - 15SEP2010. Note to self: never attend Texas A&M.
In the 1970's and 1980's I was using these to work on making robotic parts. It has potential but hasn't been really realized yet.
The future is here. Tomorrow is just another day.
So there! Morphing metal was reverse engineered from a different UFO crash 16 years BEFORE Roswell.
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