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Aerographite takes title of world's lightest material
Manufacturing Digital ^
| 13 Jul 2012
| Jonny Williamson
Posted on 07/14/2012 9:22:48 AM PDT by null and void
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Easy? Nothing to it!
To: null and void
I made an airplane out of aerographite, but it kept blowing away every time I breathed.
2
posted on
07/14/2012 9:32:47 AM PDT
by
UCANSEE2
(Lame and ill-informed post)
To: null and void
The micro-lattice was not only strong, but incredibly light, almost 100 times lighter than Styrofoam, yet unbelievably aerographite is 100 percent lighter again, weighing less than 200 times that of Styrofoam. Huh???
3
posted on
07/14/2012 9:43:53 AM PDT
by
steve86
(Acerbic by nature not nurture TM)
To: null and void
...aerographite is 100 percent lighter again, weighing less than 200 times that of Styrofoam.Though mostly air, the material can not only be compressed by a factor of 1,000 and still spring back to its original shape, but can also support many times its own weight.
So if by "many times its own weight" they mean 200 times it's own weight, you could make a darn good styrofoam coffee cup holder out of it.
4
posted on
07/14/2012 9:46:07 AM PDT
by
pepsi_junkie
(Who is John Galt?)
To: UCANSEE2
How would it do as material for wings in an ultra-light, or even an ornithopter (bird like propulsion)? Ballast weight of the pilot, his rig, and a supporting frame (if necessary) could offset that “fly away” factor.
5
posted on
07/14/2012 9:52:58 AM PDT
by
katana
(Just my opinions)
To: steve86
Yes, the writer flunked 3rd grade math.
6
posted on
07/14/2012 9:54:47 AM PDT
by
katana
(Just my opinions)
To: null and void
a material strong as steel but light as styrofoam would sell well, provided it is not too expensive.
7
posted on
07/14/2012 9:54:51 AM PDT
by
Fester Chugabrew
(let establishment heads explode)
To: katana
One idea might be that instead of replacing the present “skin” of an ultra-light with aereographite, to use it for the “ribs” of the fuselage; and then provide sufficient mass in the “skin”; which, with aereographite’s greater ability to resist weight much greater than itself, the structural integrity of such a craft might have greater survivability in a crash - sacrificing some of the skin while holding more of the fuselage intact? Maybe?
On the other hand, your idea of using it for the skin of the craft, might be exchanged for even sturdier-than-present “ribs” of the craft, with no net addition of weight, and maybe, properly “joined”, the “skin” of aereographite composition might preserve aereographite’s shock absorption abilities, and thereby help improve an ultralight’s “survivability” in a crash.
Maybe one method or the other might be tried by different manufacturer’s.
Let’s watch and see - when an if this material moves from the lab to real-time applications.
8
posted on
07/14/2012 10:32:44 AM PDT
by
Wuli
To: katana
“Yes, the writer flunked 3rd grade math.”
Yea it would sure help if they stopped using English majors to write technical stuff - it’s way beyond their capability.
9
posted on
07/14/2012 10:50:50 AM PDT
by
BobL
To: null and void
Looks like I’ll be trading in my Tempra-Pedic mattress soon. It would be like sleeping in zero gravity!
To: steve86
Apples (micro-lattice) and Oranges (Aerographite). Made perfect sense.
To: pepsi_junkie
If you use helium how light will it be?
To: null and void
To: katana
How would it do as material for wings in an ultra-light, or even an ornithopter (bird like propulsion)? Ballast weight of the pilot, his rig, and a supporting frame (if necessary) could offset that fly away factor. There's probably a downside to the material, like being extremely brittle (a guess). They rarely mention the negatives in these press releases.
14
posted on
07/14/2012 1:03:26 PM PDT
by
Moonman62
(The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
To: steve86
Get with the program. It looks an awful lot more like it does now that it did. sd
15
posted on
07/14/2012 1:13:37 PM PDT
by
shotdog
(I love my country. It's our government I'm afraid of.)
To: null and void
100^2 is 10,000 times lighter. If it’s “only” 200 times, that’s twice as light as 100 times.
16
posted on
07/14/2012 1:25:00 PM PDT
by
Jonty30
(What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
To: null and void
The micro-lattice was not only strong, but incredibly light, almost 100 times lighter than Styrofoam, yet unbelievably aerographite is 100 percent lighter again, weighing less than 200 times that of Styrofoam.
Is the writer mixing things up? Saying "times" is used for multiples of a quantity, not a fraction of a quantity. If "100 times lighter" is supposed to mean 1/100th the weight, then something that is 1/100 of that isn't going to be "200 times lighter" because that would mean 1/200th the weight. The writer should have said 1/10,000 the weight of Styrofoam because a hundredth of a hundredth is a ten thousandth.
17
posted on
07/14/2012 1:48:43 PM PDT
by
aruanan
To: null and void
The micro-lattice was not only strong, but incredibly light, almost 100 times lighter than Styrofoam, yet unbelievably aerographite is 100 percent lighter again, weighing less than 200 times that of Styrofoam.
As written, it's even funnier. If you had a block of styrofoam that weighed a pound, then something that weighs "less than 200 times that of Styrofoam" could be anything between 1 and 200 pounds.
18
posted on
07/14/2012 1:50:33 PM PDT
by
aruanan
To: Starstruck
If you use helium how light will it be? s what I was wondering - can it be made in a helium environment, and can it retain helium in its structure?
19
posted on
07/14/2012 2:00:06 PM PDT
by
conservatism_IS_compassion
(The idea around which “liberalism" coheres is that NOTHING actually matters except PR.)
To: null and void
Vests?
I wonder of this will be used to make great light weight protection.
20
posted on
07/14/2012 2:02:56 PM PDT
by
ElPaseo
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