Glassy Metals, Revolutionary material?

[Excaliber]

Quote:
It is called metallic glass, or amorphous metal and is being touted as revolutionary to the field of metallurgy. It is much stronger and lighter than titanium and CAN BE INJECTED MOLDED as well, eliminating the need for machining. It can be used to make anything from fighter planes to bicycles and would definitely have aerospace ramifications. It is already on the market and is being used in golf clubs and transformers. It does have a major drawback however, it is very expensive as you might have guessed. Cryogenics must be used to rapidly cool the metal to get the metal glass effect without the crystals. They have just recently found a combination of alloys that don't need to be cryogenically cooled to form the amorphous metal. This could be a breakthrough that would make the process more economically competitive.
End quote

I wonder what application this material might have in engine technology?

More here;
http://www.discover.com/issues/apr-0...glassy-metals/

Ernie

[mrmustang]

Ernie,

Interesting article


Bill S.

[BlueRooster]

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[Excaliber]

That IS a wierd web site and I DO NOT support their views. But the glassy metal is interesting.

Ernie

[Brent Mills]

Ernie, I hope you don't mind, but I changed the link directly to the discovery channel article instead of sending people to that other site....

[Excaliber]

Thank you Brent, much better!

Ernie

[excelguru]

That's a pretty cool article (didn't see the original site, thank goodness). I only read the teaser portion as I'm too tight to pay for a subscription. That sounds similar to a cryogenic treatment that a company was using on engine blocks recently (would that be considered reverse-heat-treating?). Can't remember much about it except that it made the bores last a lot longer and increased strength maybe. This sounds a little different than that. Technology is an amazing thing.

[Excaliber]

The fact that it can be injected molded really throws me off. WHAT is this stuff?????

Having looked a little deeper into this I THINK it is, or could be considered as actually "glass". With metallic properties of course. Don't know HOW you would machine this stuff.

Ernie

[excelguru]

It's amazing what they're developing these days. The next ten to fifteen years will see some truly mind-shattering advancements in materials technology.

And don't even get me STARTED on nanotechnology. That truly is mind-blowing... microscopic oxygen compressors that could be injected into the bloodstream by the thousands to allow someone to stay submerged without a breathing aparatus for hours (by slowly releasing oxygen as needed)... microscopic detectors that can sense the presence of a single molecule of nerve gas... flying robots the size of a bumblebee that can be deployed into caves to detect the presence of high CO2 levels, thereby indicating the presence of humans... this isn't sciece fiction anymore, folks. It borders on being scary.