Space Age Metal: New Titanium Alloys Near 'Magic' Strength Threshold

Space.com ^ | 22 April 2003 | Robert Roy Britt

[strategofr]

Every time an astronaut gets off the ground, he or she owes a debt to the Wright brothers, not just because the boys dared to fly, but because they were smart enough to use a newfangled aluminum alloy to lighten the load of their engine and make flight possible.

The art and science of creating new, lighter and stronger metal alloys has progressed remarkably in the intervening 100 years. But many scientists now envision a looming limit to this progress owing to a mature science that will now make only incremental gains.

Then along comes Takashi Saito, a Japanese researcher who appears to have shattered the glass ceiling on metal-alloy development limitations.

Saito, of the Toyota Central Research and Development Laboratories, and his colleagues have jettisoned the traditional art approach to alloy development -- the trial and error used at Kitty Hawk and everywhere since -- and turned to pure science, specifically quantum mechanics and high-powered computer computation, to create new mixtures of metal which, one outside scientist says, have spectacular properties of strength and flexibility.

In the April 17 issue of the journal Science, Saito's team writes that their titanium-based alloys exhibit "super" properties, such as ultrahigh strength and super elasticity. The new materials could prove useful for spaceflight, where precision operations are conducted in ruthless conditions.

The alloys approach "magic" upper property limits that previous methods could not attain, the scientists say.

Alloys of myriad mixings are used in various parts on satellites, deep space probes and the shuttle fleet. The new alloys could be particularly suitable for ultralightweight springs, as one example, or other "precision instruments for use in rugged environments such as in outer space," the researchers report.

To develop an alloy, researchers add one ore more so-called solute elements to a metallic solvent, such as aluminum or titanium, explains Gary Shiflet, who wrote an analysis of the new results for the journal. But there is a practically infinite number of possible atomic combinations that, in the end, result in wildly differing structural properties.

Saito's group has made "major advances in specific material properties that would be exceedingly difficult to achieve by trial and error," says Shiflet, who works in materials science and engineering at the University of Virginia.

The result, Shiflet says, is an alloy with "spectacular properties" and the promise of materials that "may have the strength to carry a load and be able to perform another distinctive capacity, such as sensing damage and perhaps even repairing themselves."

Shiflet said the discovery, and the computer work that drove it, are incentives for other researchers to concoct new metal mixtures.

[strategofr]

"I'm not an engineer, although I once wanted to be one,"

I think you'd have been a good one.

[SauronOfMordor]

I think here is the patent description

[Friend of thunder]

Paging Mr. Reardon, Mr. Hank Reardon...

My thought exactly.

[Windsong]

"Gish...wonder what the gas savings would be if a car were light enough to be lifted"

Blade Runner possibilities

(whats with your sig? Its high time we all moved on from that farce)

[meyer]

22 April 2003, 2 1/2 years ago? This should be on cars now.

I'll bet it isn't cheap. It might have found its way into a $500,000 race car by now though.

[WIladyconservative]

The way the article is written it is unclear if they have actually manufactured this yet or if it is still theoretical. . . . .anyone know?

[Squantos]

Brain Ping .....

[spetznaz]

Someone call me up when they make Adamantium!

[meyer]

Maybe even a dynamically adjustable center of mass.

Power seats do that - well, a little bit. A very little bit....

[Itzlzha]

And again, Star Trek predicts the future...

Click the pic...

From the site...

"A ceramic research lab in Dresden, Germany, has developed transparent Alumina by subjecting fine-grained (I'm guessing extremely fine-grained) aluminum to a whopping 1200 degrees Celsius ...the result of which is amazingly light but three times tougher than hardened steel of the same thickness, and it's see-through."

Actually, for the technically inclined, the real Physics/Chemistry is Here

Excerpt...

"Rosenflanz and colleagues started by mixing around 80 mole % of powdered alumina with various rare-earth oxide powders -- including lanthanum, gadolinium and yttrium oxides. Next, they fed the powders into a high-temperature hydrogen-oxygen flame to produce molten particles that were then quenched in water. The resulting glass beads, which were less than 140 microns across, were then heat-treated -- or sintered -- at around 1000°C. This produced bulk glass samples in which nanocrystalline alumina-rich phases were dispersed throughout a glassy matrix. The new method avoids the need to apply pressures of 1 gigapascal or more, as is required in existing techniques."

[Squantos]

Now if they can just make a recoiless 500 Linebaugh revolver out if this stuff......

[teshu]

but he came out of retirement to help get rid of some vermin

[meyer]

Someone call me up when they make Adamantium!

I can hook you up with plenty of Administratium - cheap. ;)

[strategofr]

"and turned to pure science, specifically quantum mechanics and high-powered computer computation, to create new mixtures of metal which, one outside scientist says, have spectacular properties of strength and flexibility...In the April 17 issue of the journal Science, Saito's team writes that their titanium-based alloys exhibit "super" properties, such as ultrahigh strength and super elasticity."

Sounds like the claim of new metals being manufactured is made, but not yet completely beleived. When scientists want to prove they made a new metal, I think they at least do a public demo with the media there.

[strategofr]

"the result of which is amazingly light but three times tougher than hardened steel of the same thickness, and it's see-through.""

very cool, indeed!

[dljordan]

"And motorists... among them some Freepers... will still flip us the bird for having the gall to ride on THEIR roads."

And cyclists... among them some Freepers... will still flip us the bird for having the gall to ride on THEIR roads.

There, I fixed it for you.

[finnman69]

"Damage control is easy. Reading Klingon, that's hard."

[LexBaird]

Titanium would be excellent in SUVs. Strong, light, and capable of maintaining structural integrity at Mach 2+.

I want one of those mach 2 SUVs.

[Capriole]

station wagon.

LOL! I use that term sometimes. It dates us. Does your's have faux wood panelling?

No, mine is a Subaru Outback station wagon, kind of a mini-SUV because it does have four-wheel drive and high ground clearance. I bought it because it has more cargo capacity than the Subaru Forester, so it's good for hauling our the family's horse-related gear. It's a great car, I love it, and it's decorated with a W sticker, a Confederate First National, an NRA sticker, and a foxhunting sticker so that nobody mistakes it for a liberal car. But I'm about to trade it in on a one-ton pickup truck as we prepare to move to the country.

[Last Dakotan]

some Freepers... will still flip us the bird for having the gall to ride on THEIR roads.

Who pays the fuel taxes?