New whatsitium

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  • armedandsafe
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2011
    • 465

    New whatsitium

    Wonder how it will machine? What tooling would be best? Not much swarf, eh? (Just a snip, for copyright restrictions.)


    Scientists Create Material 100x Lighter Than Styrofoam
    The new material, called a micro-lattice, relies, appropriately, on a lattice architecture: tiny hollow tubes made of nickel-phosphorous are angled to connect at nodes, forming repeating, asterisklike unit cells in three dimensions. Everything between the tubes is open air. In fact, the structure consists of 99.99% open volume. Tobias Schaedler, a research staff scientist at HRL Laboratories, LLC, and lead author on the report described it as “a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness of 100 nanometers, 1,000 times thinner than a human hair.”
    Pops
  • Evan
    Senior Member
    • May 2003
    • 41977

    #2
    Sounds pretty similar to aerogels.
    Free software for calculating bolt circles and similar: Click Here

    Comment

    • garagemark
      Senior Member
      • Feb 2009
      • 1178

      #3
      Maybe now we can make the proverbial magic carpet.

      Hard to keep up with technology anymore. Makes my head swim sometimes.

      Comment

      • Evan
        Senior Member
        • May 2003
        • 41977

        #4
        I wish they would give some more information on it. It would be nice to know how strong it is in absolute terms. They do mention in the journal article that it is deformable by 50% without permanent yield but give no clue how much force that takes.

        For instance, could it be used to build a model aircraft? Never mind how much it costs at the moment, that's just an engineering problem.
        Free software for calculating bolt circles and similar: Click Here

        Comment

        • dp
          Senior Member
          • Mar 2005
          • 12048

          #5
          That looks like it would create swarf needles that could be harmful to your body. That is even a problem for barbers who get hair bits in the craziest places.

          Comment

          • Evan
            Senior Member
            • May 2003
            • 41977

            #6
            There are some unexpected properties with nano materials. Some types of C60 Fullerenes are very toxic to some species even though they are pure carbon.
            Free software for calculating bolt circles and similar: Click Here

            Comment

            • Peter.
              Senior Member
              • Mar 2008
              • 2980

              #7
              Funny you say that Evan, my first thought was 'I wonder how harmful it is to breathe in?'
              Peter - novice home machinist, modern motorcycle enthusiast.

              Denford Viceroy 280 Synchro (11 x 24)
              Herbert 0V adapted to R8 by 'Sir John'.
              Monarch 10EE 1942

              Comment

              • Evan
                Senior Member
                • May 2003
                • 41977

                #8
                I think that is a very valid concern. Look at Chrysotile asbestos, it isn't toxic at all but the microstructure is what makes it carcinogenic.

                BTW, If you look it up you will find numerous references to the toxicity of asbestos but they are using the term "toxicity" incorrectly. It is carcinogenic but that isn't the same as toxic. You can feed it to rats in large quantities for years and it won't harm them unless you choke them to death.

                It seems that some nano materials cause problems because they interfere with the cellular machinery on a mechanical level. This isn't entirely new as is demonstrated by asbestos but it also isn't predictable when we create new materials that have nano scale properties. What if something like the material of this topic causes cancer but only after 20 years? How do you determine that in a safety study? How do you deal with the possibility when developing new materials?

                As seems to be very often the case now our technology is taking us into areas that pose important questions with few or no answers.
                Free software for calculating bolt circles and similar: Click Here

                Comment

                • hornluv
                  Senior Member
                  • Oct 2002
                  • 899

                  #9
                  The article that I read seems to imply that it is electroformed. It said it starts as a polymer structure (Possibly 3d printed? It didn't get into that.) and the metal is deposited on top of that. Then the polymer is dissolved in lye. That also explains the rather large range of wall thickness the article stated, 100 to 500 nanometers. I know that's not a big measurement, but I wish I could have a tolerance 400 units wide
                  Stuart de Haro

                  Comment

                  • Charles Lessig
                    Member
                    • Oct 2005
                    • 57

                    #10
                    This flying foam is a step nearer to upsadaisyium.

                    Huge amounts of letters made of foam flying above our heads at IFA Berlin. How they're made? A foam printer...


                    As a way of adding lightness.

                    Comment

                    • flylo
                      Senior Member
                      • Apr 2011
                      • 8848

                      #11
                      Maybe the material for my next plane?

                      Comment

                      • Evan
                        Senior Member
                        • May 2003
                        • 41977

                        #12
                        As a way of adding lightness.
                        That strikes me as similar to filling a container with vacuum.
                        Free software for calculating bolt circles and similar: Click Here

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