Interesting new <10 second heat treat method makes "strongest steel" on record

Kaizen1

Kaizen1

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A Detroit entrepreneur surprised university engineers here recently, when he invented a heat-treatment that makes steel 7 percent stronger than any steel on record – in less than 10 seconds.
In fact, the steel, now trademarked as Flash Bainite, has tested stronger and more shock-absorbing than the most common titanium alloys used by industry...
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Linky

I know it doesn't mention any applications for blades and their preferred properties, but I thought this was cool news:thumbup:.
 
It IS cool news. Eventually you know blades will be made out of it or have it done to them. I wonder if it makes the steel brittle though ??? Never mind, i read the article. It makes it LESS brittle. The possibilities are endless.
 
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Does it use cold fusion?? :foot: I'm always skeptical of these wonder materials until you see some actual applications. What is amazing is after all these years, we're still finding ways to change the properties of steels. They say steel is a mature industry -- but that just means we've run out of ideas for now.
 
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SO THAT is the secret heat treatment behind Infi steel! Interesting article by the way. Thanks for sharing.
 
Interesting. I'd be intrigued to see how the formation of bainite could play a role in retaining martensite at higher desireable percentages. Could be we could see improved HRC values across the board for blade steels.
 
Even if it was 7% than "maximum" heat treated steel, it's still just 7%.
Long way to go to miracle steels... if such thing exists.
 
7% is huge ?? Sounds like a politician's claims . There have been many improvements in steels for the automotive industry . One article about the Porsche Panamera showed that their frame had IIRC 5 different steels .Each section of the frame used the best steel for that particular section. Other makers are doing similar things .The next Miata will be 400 lbs lighter than the original by using high strength steel and smaller engine. So steel development is not dead !!

The Panamera is long, wide and low. Overall length is 195.6 in., width is 76.0 in., and it stands just 55.8-in. tall. Wheelbase is 115.0 in., enough to allow a generous front to rear seat couple, critical for ensuring the car comfortably accommodates four adults. The body shell is knitted together from a number of metals. High strength steels, including Boron-alloyed (shown in red), polyphase (orange), and micro-alloyed (yellow) are used to create an ultra-stiff passenger safety cell. The voluptuous rear fenders are very deep draw stampings, which meant they had to be steel (green). At the front is an aluminum subframe (blue) designed to manage front impact loads. The hood, rear hatch, and fenders are also aluminum, as are the doors, which have ultra-lightweight magnesium frames (turquoise). Despite the extensive use of lightweight materials, the Panamera is still a substantial car - the base, two wheel drive S weighs 3969lbs, the all-wheel drive 4S 4101lbs, and the Turbo 4344lbs.

Read more: http://www.motortrend.com/features/...namera_tech_overview/index.html#ixzz1OrZPj4Gj
 
seems odd that nobody ever tried heating and cooling steel very quickly like this before. I wonder if there are going to be drawbacks found w/ this steel. I also wonder how outrageously expensive this steel will be?
 
Your car analogy isn't steel development. They're using steels that have been around for years, they're just finally using them properly. They aren't using new steel, just new to their application.

It's definitely interesting. Not sure why all the skepticism.
 
It shouldn't be expensive at all if you read , then picture the article. Does not sound complicated but I'm sure they are leaving out a few details ;) I sure as hell would or every halfwit and hack with the proper equipment will be trying to duplicate the process then patent it before the originator has a chance.

Tostig
 
its biggest contribution i feel is not only the marginal increase in strength, but more the time saved. it should make high strength steel much much cheaper to produce in quantity, meaning even economy cars will be able to have high strength steel structure...

whats this mean for the knife world? i would assume that while this heat treatment does not bring it to maximum hardness for edge holding applications, it will lead to developments to make those processes faster [read cheaper] as well as maybe even bringing the cost of steel as an industry down due to the [now] ease of obtaining "high strength" steel.
 
Sheet metal of what thickness? Does it work with 1/4" steel? What's the final hardness? Does it work with high alloy steel types?
Lots of questions to be answered before it can be applied to knives. My bet is that it's not hard enough, which fits with "automotive applications", unless you're talking about high pressure valves (that's the stuff we want). It seems like any time someone talks about the strength of steel in a general industrial manner they are talking about tensile strength, which does virtually nothing for us. Chances are any new blade steel technology you see in the future will come from within the established knife/factory-cutty-things industry.


Oh, by the way. Remember DiamondBlade Knives? Much more expensive process, but still very promising if they would just run some S90V through their machines (my bet is they don't have the grinders for it).
 
While I agree that innovations in the knife industry will likely come more or completely from the current processes within the knife industry, the exciting thing is that if true, someone's discovered new characteristics/ features/ behaviors of the steel/heat treat industries which creates room for potential innovations within the fields that wouldn't have been accessible otherwise.

It should be rather obvious that this technology is in its infancy, if not alchemy stage and that any possible applications to the knife world any time soon in any useful manner is extremely slim at this point. That wasn't the point of my posting the story up. It's the excitement from the possibility of new room for growth in the industry in general for sometime in the future.
 
Kaizen1 said:
While I agree that innovations in the knife industry will likely come more or completely from the current processes within the knife industry, the exciting thing is that if true, someone's discovered new characteristics/ features/ behaviors of the steel/heat treat industries which creates room for potential innovations within the fields that wouldn't have been accessible otherwise.

It should be rather obvious that this technology is in its infancy, if not alchemy stage and that any possible applications to the knife world any time soon in any useful manner is extremely slim at this point. That wasn't the point of my posting the story up. It's the excitement from the possibility of new room for growth in the industry in general for sometime in the future.
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exactly... they learned something about something they thought they knew everything about... means more funding for research in everything steel related!!!! woohoo!!!!
 
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