-
Welcome back Guest! Did you know you can mentor other members here at H-M? If not, please check out our Relaunch of Hobby Machinist Mentoring Program!
Have you heard of "Liquid Metal"?
- Thread starter HMF
- Start date
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2012
- Messages
- 2,220
Re: Have you heard of "Liquid Metal"?
This is something straight out of the UFO files. Amazing. Right now it is proprietary and probably very costly, but at some point when the patent runs out, this will be as common as injected molded plastic.
This is something straight out of the UFO files. Amazing. Right now it is proprietary and probably very costly, but at some point when the patent runs out, this will be as common as injected molded plastic.
Re: Have you heard of "Liquid Metal"?
Amorphous metals have some great properties. I saw a video years ago of a ball bearing bouncing on a plate of the stuff for almost a minute. Its coefficient of restitution can be that high. Biggest limitation was impact resistance (material failure was always sudden onset) and limitation of casting thickness (1mm). At least that was the case, its seems the state of the art has progressed.
Amorphous metals have some great properties. I saw a video years ago of a ball bearing bouncing on a plate of the stuff for almost a minute. Its coefficient of restitution can be that high. Biggest limitation was impact resistance (material failure was always sudden onset) and limitation of casting thickness (1mm). At least that was the case, its seems the state of the art has progressed.
Re: Have you heard of "Liquid Metal"?
Not the video I remember but you can see the idea. Quite amazing. It seems mundane until you think about the energy absorbed by materials in engines from elastic deformation. Not to mention its thermal conductivity is lower than most metals as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg0hUqdzXGw
Not the video I remember but you can see the idea. Quite amazing. It seems mundane until you think about the energy absorbed by materials in engines from elastic deformation. Not to mention its thermal conductivity is lower than most metals as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg0hUqdzXGw
- Joined
- May 10, 2012
- Messages
- 995
Re: Have you heard of "Liquid Metal"?
Years ago this was looked at as a replacement for depleted Uranium for armor peircing gun rounds, as it was claimed it would give higher performance than Tungsten. It never took off in that application, I don't know if these guys are still trying to sell it for that or not, as I don't do guns anymore.
Years ago this was looked at as a replacement for depleted Uranium for armor peircing gun rounds, as it was claimed it would give higher performance than Tungsten. It never took off in that application, I don't know if these guys are still trying to sell it for that or not, as I don't do guns anymore.
- Joined
- Aug 5, 2013
- Messages
- 125
Re: Have you heard of "Liquid Metal"?
I used to work there. Amazing stuff, but extremely expensive and difficult to make. A few of the earlier alloys (LM1, LM2) contain Beryllium and suffer from the perception of that element being unsafe.
The ball bouncers are a little deceiving, as the steel has epoxy under it.
I used to work there. Amazing stuff, but extremely expensive and difficult to make. A few of the earlier alloys (LM1, LM2) contain Beryllium and suffer from the perception of that element being unsafe.
The ball bouncers are a little deceiving, as the steel has epoxy under it.