New metal alloy is super strong, easy to cast

Harry Callahan

Harry Callahan

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NEW YORK (AP): It could be the new superhero of metals.

More than twice as strong as titanium and steel, it doesn't rust and it can be cast like plastic and honed to an edge as sharp as glass.

And like any superhero, it has a weakness: don't heat it too much, or it loses its strength.

The fruit of a 1992 discovery at the California Institute of Technology, the alloy, called Liquidmetal, has already been used in golf clubs. And it may soon show up in cell phone casings, baseball bats and scalpels.

Liquidmetal Technologies, the Lake Forest, Calif. company that is trying to commercialize the alloy, is not shy about calling it revolutionary.....(snip)
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Look out 154CM, here comes Liquidmetal!:eek:
 
Oh great! Now all we need is for Cyberdyne and Skynet to hear about this and it's hello T-2000!:rolleyes:

If this is for real, it could be the bestest thing since Talonite.:eek:
 
Yeah, I suppose heat could be a problem. For just EDC apps tho, it might be pretty decent as long as ya keep it outta the campfire.:)
 
Very interesting. It would be great to see if this stuff would actually make better blades. Theoretically it might be the perfect metal, but it always seems that there is an Achilles' heel. I wonder if this stuff is malleable. Yes, very interesting indeed.
 
I just skimmed the article, and too lazy to go back. It talked about strength, did it say anything about wear resistance or toughness?

Joe
 
They don't talk about toughness or wear resistance at all. I went to their web site and watched a 13 minute flash presentation and they do talk about it having the best elastic qualities of any metal and state that as far as knives are concerned it would have excellent edge retention.
 
What a great time to be a knife knut. We have more choices than ever before. The light sabre can't be long now? right?
 
Note when perople generally say something like "twice as strong as Titanium and Steel", they don't mean cutlery grades of those metals. It would be nice if they presented some specific materials data instead of vague generalizations.

-Cliff
 
The TECHNOLOGY PAGE on Liquidmetal's website discusses wear resistance and other properties. Also check out the "Defense Applications" page. The company says their material is being considered as a replacement for depleted Uranium in "environmentally friendly" kinetic-energy penetrators.

Composites of Liquidmetal Alloy

The above mentioned qualities, specifically the availability of superior properties in as-cast form and low melting temperature, provides exceptional opportunities for the processing of Liquidmetal alloy in composite forms with a variety of reinforcements. The near-net shape processing characteristics of Liquidmetal alloy make the fabrication of highly sophisticated and sound composite structures possible. This allows us to further improve or tailor the following properties of Liquidmetal alloys for specific applications:

-Fatigue Resistance
-Yield Strength
-Density
-Elastic Modulus
-Impact Resistance
-Thermal and Electrical Conductivity
-Coefficient of Thermal Expansion
-Acoustic and Dampening Characteristics
 
Glassy or amorphous metals aren't really such a "new" development. Howmet has been pushing this stuff for a few years and it has been in golf clubs for a long time. In many ways it does look like a really great new material but as Kieth says there always seems to be an Achilles' heel. In the case of this stuff you may have noticed that it contains beryllium which is a rather unhealthy element. The potential liability involved with people sharpening a knife of this material is enough to turn any company off.

If memory serves there were some non magnetic beryllium copper dive knives were made for Navy UDTs in the 60s and there were very strict protocals regarding the sharpening of the knives. Perhaps someone who is familiar with historic militaary knives could give some more details.
 
They don't talk about toughness or wear resistance
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Bingo.

This material is an amorphous superfluid. That means it isn't actually solid. It's a liquid... albeit a very thick liquid, so thick that, for many purposes, it can be considered solid.

Glass is another example of an amorphous superfluid. That's right: the glass snifter I'm drinking out of is every bit as much a liquid as the bourbon it contains. The glass is, however, such a thick, viscous fluid that it will remain in the shape of a snifter for my lifetime and many more.

But it is a fluid.

If you break a piece of ordinary glass, the edges can be razor-sharp. But, if you'll come back even a few weeks later, you'll find them considerably duller even if nobody or nothing has touched it. Why? Because a fluid can not hold a sharp edge. The material's surface tension will actually cause the edge to round over.

You can see this in how the "edges" of a drop of water are rounded. The surface tension of the water rounds the edges. The surface tension of glass will slowly do the same thing. And, the surface tension of this new amorphous superfluid "metal" will also do the same thing. It may take a razor-sharp edge initially, but it will naturally and unavoidably go dull even if it's not used or touched.
 
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