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New Alloy Bounces Back Into Shape 10 Million Times And Counting

Posted by timothy on from the bouncy-bouncy dept.

wrp103 links to the BBC's report of a newly engineered alloy that returns to its original shape after deformation even after 10 million cycles more than 10 million times. From the article: "Memory shape alloys" like this have many potential uses, but present incarnations are prone to wearing out. The new material — made from nickel, titanium and copper — shatters previous records and is so resilient it could be useful in artificial heart valves, aircraft components or a new generation of solid-state refrigerators." (Original article in Science Magazine.)

7 of 65 comments (clear)

  1. Heart valves? Refrigerators? Pah! by cduffy · · Score: 4, Interesting

    We can make modern flex nibs better than the old ones!

    (Good flexible fountain pen nibs are pretty much all circa 1950s or prior right now; it's a sad, sad state of affairs).

    1. Re:Heart valves? Refrigerators? Pah! by SeaFox · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Did something change in the late '50s (like material or manufacturing laws) that resulted in poorer quality nibs after that point?

    2. Re:Heart valves? Refrigerators? Pah! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      When the ballpoint pen came out, Fountain pen makers tried to compete with things like lifetime warranties. Flex nibs, when flexed too far, can spring and not bounce back. When made of expensive metals (14k gold for flex nibs), it made lifetime warranties pretty expensive for the manufacturers to have to replace nibs that people ruin. Saying no to replacing a nib wouldn't go over well, because most people can't admit that they mis-used something. So, to make the warranties stick and to not piss people off, things had to made more durable, i.e. not flexy.

      It got worse when people grew up on ballpoint pens and would buy pens as adults. Ballpoint users are used to pressing hard. Pressing hard can damage nibs. Then we ended up with the ridiculously hard nails of today.

      In addition, some countries (esp. France) regulated the amount of gold has to be in something to call it "gold". Flex pens should be made of 14k, but the French, in their infinite wisdom, made it 18k. That's far too soft for a flex nib, since there isn't enough memory. (And there are even some folks who make 21k nibs, which are just silly)

      Nib metals also need to not corrode too, hence why it's still pretty much stainless steel (which doesn't flex well) or gold (better for corrosion, but18k is too soft). Since there are so few of us who like flexy nibs, it's not worth the research and tooling to figure out new types of nibs. (They've tried titanium, but it's just not that great)

    3. Re:Heart valves? Refrigerators? Pah! by cduffy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      please enlighten us as to why the fountain pin and/or feathered quill is superior to the free pens I get from the bank?

      Y'know, I actually don't mind giving this a serious answer.

      You don't need pressure to write with a fountain pen -- at all. (The modern competitor is a rollerball, not a ballpoint; rollerballs don't give you amount of flexibility on nib grind or opportunities for flex and shading effects that you get with a fountain, but at least you're not forced to use tons of pressure). Allows different, more comfortable grips.

      Also, they're refillable with water-based inks -- meaning that they're not disposable, and that you have a huge amount of choice in terms of color and properties of your ink. Want an ink that's still viscous in below-freezing weather? I've got a bottle on my desk! Want an ink that changes from yellow to red depending on how much you're putting down on the paper? That too! Want an ink that responds to ultraviolet and is completely waterproof you can mix in with other inks that are water-soluable, so you can see where writing that's been washed away used to be under a blacklight?

      Lots of room for geekery. :)

  2. Why no video? by dastardlydavros · · Score: 2

    Scientists: Hey guys we've invented this amazing new thing!
    Me: Cool, let's see a video of it in action.
    Scientists: Pfft! We've done one better than that - we've written a paper on it instead.
    Me: Gaahhhhh!!!

  3. Re:More needed to be used as a heart valve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    They did testing of 10 million cycles and checked for fatigue in the metal - they found only negligible changes, that indicates the metal changes. So while 10 million is what has been tested, the results indicate that it should be able to continue on for a significantly higher number of cycles.

  4. Re:More needed to be used as a heart valve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Not necessarily. It's a simple matter to run a series of test to failure at varying stresses to determine fatigue life. Then we can employee Miner's rule to predict fatigue damage for a variety of applications for this new material.