Glassy Metal AKA Amorphous

I search, I havent found anything like it, if I missed it, sorry what can I say.

The first part of this comes from the pages of (April Issue of Discovery Mag)

Glassy Metal
Harder, stronger, and better- the material of the future.

The wispy metal strip in my hands is 1 inch wide and as thin as aluminum foil.
"Try to tear it," says William Johnson, a materials science professor at Caltech in Pasadena.
I pull- first gentily, but soon with all my might. No go.

"See if you can cut this," suggest Johnson. Handing me a mirror-bright piece of same metal. Its an inch longer, a qquarter inch wide, and as thin as a dime. I bear down with a pair of heavy duty bolt cutters. The metal wont cut. I try again with all my might, Again nothing.

But the most amazing act in this show is yet to come.

"Watch," says Johnson. From a height of about two feet, A steel ball is dropped onto a brick-size chunk of this glassy metal. The ball bounced and bounced, For one minute and 17 seconds. If it would have been any other metal it would have been thump, thump,thump, and then stop.

This is me now.
This stuff will be used for everything. 15 bucks a pound. very expencive. It is like plastic in the sence that its injection form made.

After reading this artical I went resherching the net. heres what i have found.

www.e4engineering.com...

There are currently some 12 producers marketing a range of metal foams, mostly based on aluminium. But other metals - copper, nickel, stainless steel and titanium - can be foamed and are available on order. Cambridge-based materials expert Granta design has even developed a software tool, the Cambridge Engineering Selector, it claims allows users to compare the properties of 130 different foams with those of conventional metals.
However, while most current methods are concerned with manufacturing aluminium-based foams, researchers at the California Institute of technology (Caltech) have made a foam from bulk metallic glass (BMG), a metallic material with a non-crystalline microstructure, making it amorphous, or 'glassy' in its solid state.
The advantage of BMG over, for instance aluminium, is its exceptionally high strength. The Caltech team quotes yield strengths of around 2Gpa (gigapascals), compared to around 250Mpa (megapascals) for aluminium. Foams made from BMG are, therefore, expected to have an even greater ability to absorb energy.
According to Chris Veazey, the researcher involved in the development of the new foam, the material has the stiffness of conventional metal but the springiness of a trampoline. Tentatively named Bubbloy (a combination of 'bubble' and 'alloy') the material is made of palladium, nickel, copper and phosphorus. This alloy was already known as one of the best bulk metallic glasses around, but Caltech's contribution was figuring out how to get it to foam.
The manufacturing process involves adding hydrated boron oxide powder to a chamber containing molten palladium mixed with nickel, copper and phosphorus. Water vapour released by heat from the boron oxide aerates the alloy, creating small bubbles.
The mix is allowed to cool to room temperature and is then reheated while air is simultaneously sucked from the chamber. This causes the bubbles to expand slowly within the alloy. Preliminary results indicate that the closer the bubbles are to each other the springier the material is.
Crucially, because these bubbles are in a metal without crystals, they can be compressed by forces that would permanently damage other foams and yet still return to their original shape. And as for its strength-to-weight ratio: initial castings of Bubbloy are strong yet light enough to float in water, added Veazey.
Veazey believes the material has great potential for use in the crumple zones of cars. 'It should make one car safer than another where the structures in the crumple zone are made of conventional metals,' he said.
This work in still in the early stages. But it has already taken its first step out of the laboratory, and is currently being further developed by Caltech spin-off company, Liquidmetal which has also developed a range of amorphous alloys that are being used in tennis rackets and golf clubs. However, Liquidmetal's Otis Buchanan was unwilling to say when Bubbloy is likely to be commercialised.
Although metal foams are already being used, there is a sense that they have not yet been fully exploited and are still waiting to be embraced by a big industry as the material of choice. 'Manufacturers are currently looking for one or two applications, preferably somewhere like the automotive industry where they can get in large volumes and it becomes the accepted material,' said Mummery.
They must overcome the conservative instincts of engineers, who have to be convinced the material is safe, and then that its benefits would outweigh the effort of redesigning entire structures around it.
Mummery sounded a note of caution for UK manufacturers. While UK engineers have led the world in developing understanding of metal foams, our dwindling manufacturing base means that we're now getting left behind, he said.
In the meantime, throughout Europe, the US and particularly in Japan - host of the Metfoam 2005 exhibition - interest in metallic foams is getting very serious.


In 1999 the same guy (johnson as in the dicovery) was trying to find the breaking point of his metal glass.
Look at what he found

BERKELEY, CA � Many materials can heat up somewhat when they are bent or broken, but few throw off showers of sparks as hot as those emitted when a new kind of metallic glass is shattered. For the first time, a team of researchers in the Lab's Materials Sciences Divison has measured the extremely high temperature of particles ejected when this unusual amorphous metal is fractured.

www.lbl.gov...

some more links

66.102.7.104...:KP_5eWIrUm4J:www.arnoldmagnetics.com/mtc/pdf/new_core_coating.pdf+amorphous+glass+metal&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

www.nanoamor.com...

www.urbanlegends.com...


Well there you go thats what I have found, Hope everyone finds it as intresting as I.




[edit on 11-8-2004 by SpittinCobra]

Whoa very interesting, nice find cobra.

Is it just me, or does this sound EXTREMELY similar to the material of the Roswell crash debris, according to eyewitnesses?

Originally posted by Gazrok
Is it just me, or does this sound EXTREMELY similar to the material of the Roswell crash debris, according to eyewitnesses?

Assuming it is similar material....
I don't know what is more disturbing a conclusion, that Roswell was an ET vehicle crash or that our government has had this stuff since at least 1947...and the public is that far behind.

Yep, usually only takes about 30 years or so to make it from military to commercial...what gives? I'm guessing it likely took them 20 to back engineer it, and figure out what was going on...

Originally posted by Gazrok
Is it just me, or does this sound EXTREMELY similar to the material of the Roswell crash debris, according to eyewitnesses?

Yea it does, but you would think, that they would use it on planes etc.

quoting from
SpittinCobra
""See if you can cut this," suggest Johnson. Handing me a mirror-bright piece of same metal. Its an inch longer, a qquarter inch wide, and as thin as a dime. I bear down with a pair of heavy duty bolt cutters. The metal wont cut. I try again with all my might, Again nothing. "

A plane covered in that...couldn't be shot down cause the metal won't allow the projectile to enter right?
Just think if they made cars out of this...
cool find SpittinCobra

Originally posted by NetStorm

Originally posted by Gazrok
Is it just me, or does this sound EXTREMELY similar to the material of the Roswell crash debris, according to eyewitnesses?

Yea it does, but you would think, that they would use it on planes etc.

quoting from
SpittinCobra
""See if you can cut this," suggest Johnson. Handing me a mirror-bright piece of same metal. Its an inch longer, a qquarter inch wide, and as thin as a dime. I bear down with a pair of heavy duty bolt cutters. The metal wont cut. I try again with all my might, Again nothing. "

A plane covered in that...couldn't be shot down cause the metal won't allow the projectile to enter right?
Just think if they made cars out of this...
cool find SpittinCobra

My guess is you could still shoot down a plane covered in it. The reason being that a DU anti-aircraft bullet is leagues above bolt cutters. Also most a guided missile would still have no problem with it. It would however make flak guns a lot less useful. (Were any US planes shot down by flak in the recent US-Iraq war?)

how do i order?

i need this stuff damnit!! (security reasons...steel bars)

Originally posted by Quest
My guess is you could still shoot down a plane covered in it. The reason being that a DU anti-aircraft bullet is leagues above bolt cutters. Also most a guided missile would still have no problem with it. It would however make flak guns a lot less useful. (Were any US planes shot down by flak in the recent US-Iraq war?)

Well, yea, but I would imagine that you could layer it...what gets me is the molecular density of this thing must be immense yet it is so light weight...it's a cunundrum

Thanks all

Here is some more info on the injection molding, and some pratical car uses.

Amorphous metal alloys possess superior strength, hardness, and resistance to corrosion, but are also prone to crystallization that removes such benefits. Scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, N.M., have overcome the drawbacks associated with these glassy metals by developing a method to remove impurities from the molten alloy that promote crystallization.
Unlike normal metals whose atoms are arranged in highly ordered crystalline forms, glassy metals derive their properties from a more random atomic structure produced by cooling molten alloys at high rates to avoid crystallization. Slow cooling and reheating during standard manufacturing processes, however, results in crystallization. Consequently, amorphous alloy products have been restricted to forms with large surface areas, such as powders, wires, or foils.

According to lab researcher Ricardo B. Schwarz, the new method developed at Los Alamos means that rapid cooling is no longer crucial, so the amorphous alloy can be cast into ingots or cylinders up to 25 millimeters in diameter. The alloys in these larger castings retain their unique atomic structure even when used in conventional manufacturing applications that were previously impossible because of glassy metal's size limitations and because the material could be soft-worked only in a limited temperature range.

The new process, which is suitable for different alloy compositions, allows complex shapes to be molded.

The Los Alamos team is looking to join industrial development partners to work on applications such as low-friction, low-wear bearing components; near-net-shape tooling (gears, dies, and drill bits); and surgical tools.


www.memagazine.org...


The fuel cell , at the very begining is good also.

Here are some great cell pictures on this site, when you see the cells you will see how it can work.

sspaceresearch.nasa.gov... how it can work.


You really want some here you go.

www.nanoamor.com...

global.kyocera.com...

Called Super Hero Metal

NEW YORK (AP) - July 5, 2002 -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.

"It combines uniquely a material with exceptional properties and the ability to process the material to exceptional shapes," says Dr. Michael Ashby, professor of engineering at Cambridge University in Britain and an advisor to the company.

Liquidmetal's surprising properties come of a structure different from ordinary metals.

When a conventional metal cools, it forms grains, each a small crystal where the atoms are oriented in a grid. The boundaries between these grains are a metal's weak points ? it's where cracks can form and rust starts, for instance.

Scientists discovered in 1959 that if some alloys are cooled very quickly the atoms don't have time to form crystals. Instead, they remain jumbled, as in a liquid or in glass.

However, the only way to cool the molten metal fast enough was to make it in thin strips or as a sprayed coating. The strips couldn't be joined, because they were hard to forge, and heat allowed the atoms to crystallize again.

Because of their unique magnetic properties, the strips still found use in the anti-theft tags used by retail stores and in electrical transformers. The metal was also used to spray-coat oil drill pipes to protect them from wear.

In 1992, Dr. William Johnson and Dr. Atakan Pekers at the Caltech discovered a way around the cooling problem.

They made an alloy of elements that fit very poorly together: titanium, copper, nickel, zirconium and beryllium. These elements' atoms are of different sizes so they don't readily form crystals, even when cooled slowly. Pieces up to an inch thick could now be made.

Liquidmetal Technologies seized on the opportunity, and together with Caltech and Howmet Metal Mold of Whitehall, Mich., developed casting techniques.

In the mold, Liquidmetal reveals another quality: it doesn't shrink when it solidifies. Ordinary metals do, meaning the product is rough out of the mold and needs machining.

"What happens with Liquidmetal, in essence, is that you can form parts sort of the way you form plastics," says John Kang, chief executive of Liquidmetal Technologies.

Liquidmetal can be cast with a precision down to 1 micron, or 1/25,000th of an inch, according to Johnson, now an advisor to Liquidmetal Technologies. Given a good die, it is possible to cast a scalpel blade and have it come sharp out of the mold.

Liquidmetal Technologies' first product was golf club heads, because of another exotic property of the metal: it transfers more of the club's energy to the ball than steel or titanium, at least in theory.

But golf equipment is a fiercely competitive field, and Liquidmetal has since decided to stop making its own clubs and is working instead with major golf club manufacturers because, in Kang's words "we came to the realization that we are not in the consumer products industry."

At the same time, it is looking to expand the uses for the alloy. Using money from an initial public offering in May, it is building a factory in South Korea ( news - web sites) to make, primarily, casings for cell phones.

While cell phones are not the first use that comes to mind for a super-strong metal, Kang says Liquidmetal's strength and ease of casting makes it ideal.

"Cell phone makers want to go smaller and thinner ... we create an ability for cell phones to be smaller than any other material," he says. The project has attracted interest from cell phone giants Motorola and Samsung.

Liquidmetal Technologies is also working with Rawlings on baseball bats and HEAD on skis, for much the same reason they tried their hand on golf clubs ? Liquidmetal gives good bounce.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is also investigating several different uses of the alloy. One project is looking at using it in armor-piercing shells as a replacement for depleted uranium, which has been a focus of health and environmental concerns.

For all its promise, Liquidmetal is still largely untried, which is why the company is concentrating on industries where there is a readiness to explore the new.

John Perepezko, professor of materials science at the University of Wisconsin, says making sports equipment is a safer place to start, than, for instance, the aircraft industry.

"Nobody is going to fall out of the sky, no ship is going to sink if you make a mistake," he says. "If you break a golf club, you usually brag about being too strong, rather than blame it on a weak club."

Then there's the issue of heat.

Much like glass, Liquidmetal softens when heated ? the earliest alloy at about 750 degrees Fahrenheit. By comparison, steel becomes malleable at about 2,100 degrees. Some newer amorphous alloys are, however, much more resistant to heat, Johnson says.

Cost also limits Liquidmetal. The raw materials run at $10 to $15 a pound, about as much as titanium, while aluminum costs about 50 cents a pound.

Caltech researchers are trying to create alloys consisting of cheaper metals.

"If we can make a processable amorphous iron alloy with a raw material cost of a dollar a pound, it could be an enormously pervasive material," Johnson says. "It could even make its way into cars."

Perepezko, who is not affiliated with Liquidmetal Technologies, believes that even at its present cost, the alloy is likely to see widespread use once its reliability has been proven.

"It's not going to replace the aluminum in soda cans, it just doesn't work that way. But in critical applications, it will happen. Perhaps the most important use out there is one we can't imagine yet," he says.

www.liquidmetal.com...


[Edited on 1-3-2004 by SpittinCobra]

[Edited on 1-3-2004 by SpittinCobra]

[Edited on 1-3-2004 by SpittinCobra]

Here is another good site with good applacation. I really think, this is the metal of the future.

With the SNS, scientists can gather more detailed information on the microscopic properties of optical fibers for telecommunications, metallic glass (iron-boron) magnets for miniaturized motors and generators, and ion-conducting glasses for possible use in batteries and fuel cells. The SNS will be needed to study the long-term stability of contaminated soils and other waste materials encapsulated in glass (which is subject to radiation damage over time). Intense neutron beams will be useful for examining the bulk properties and surface preparation of cobalt and titanium alloys for use as medical implants because these alloys are biologically inert and highly resistant to wear and corrosion. Neutron scattering is an important tool for studying the structure and molecular-level dynamics (e.g., bonding of silicon atoms) of amorphous semiconductors used in the electronics industry, in which the race to develop new materials, like SNS beams, is expected to be unusually intense.


www.sns.gov...

I would think aligning the metal just right would have an effect on how stong it is. I think any artillery would probably just bounce off of a tank covered in this stuff. A missile might do some damage.

Other than that, WOW. That stuff is so cool. You could use it in a high temperature high pressure envioronment, possible and suitable for many energy applications.

Originally posted by NetStorm
Just think if they made cars out of this...

cars are meant so they crumple around the passengers. the crumpling is what helps people survive. i highly doubt this stuff would crumple at all.

Originally posted by Quest
My guess is you could still shoot down a plane covered in it. The reason being that a DU anti-aircraft bullet is leagues above bolt cutters. Also most a guided missile would still have no problem with it. It would however make flak guns a lot less useful. (Were any US planes shot down by flak in the recent US-Iraq war?)

not so many planes were shot down mostly because their flak cannons can't shoot high enough.

looks like we have found the armour to replace UD armour on the M1A3 - mwahahahaha

Originally posted by American Mad Man
looks like we have found the armour to replace UD armour on the M1A3 - mwahahahaha

They are going to replace UD ammo. It was in the artical.

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid

Originally posted by NetStorm
Just think if they made cars out of this...

cars are meant so they crumple around the passengers. the crumpling is what helps people survive. i highly doubt this stuff would crumple at all.

Just quoting what the article said
"Veazey believes the material has great potential for use in the crumple zones of cars. 'It should make one car safer than another where the structures in the crumple zone are made of conventional metals,'"

Of course restraints would have to be modified since the impact would still affect the passengers

Originally posted by NetStorm

Originally posted by cmdrkeenkid

Originally posted by NetStorm
Just think if they made cars out of this...

cars are meant so they crumple around the passengers. the crumpling is what helps people survive. i highly doubt this stuff would crumple at all.

Just quoting what the article said
"Veazey believes the material has great potential for use in the crumple zones of cars. 'It should make one car safer than another where the structures in the crumple zone are made of conventional metals,'"

Of course restraints would have to be modified since the impact would still affect the passengers

It seems the only thing that has a huge affect on the metal is extream heat. Like 3000 degrees or higher

Actually this technology has been around since before 1950. It was previously used as Amorphous Metal and could be spun using a chilled form technique using pressure to push the material through a rectangular opening.

Now the are using this type of material and a variety of molecular compositions in a matrix called Structrual Amorphous Metal or SAM. The difference is that now this material type can be used in structrual application where the previous material was brittle and could break upon extreme stress.

This material has been used in high voltage transformer cores since 1985. With a high efficency ratio and lower thermal power loss up to an 85% savings in thermal loss through the transformer.

The added side benefit is that once the material is arranged in a SAM matrix its Magnetic properties jump by 200 to 300% or more.

They began making wire out of this material back in 1985 and have shown that it has a high order of super conductivity compared to copper wire strand.

www.metglas.com

Is one the oldest Companies that have Amorphous Metal materials available in the commercial industry.

Including research data from Allied Signal on the transformers and the conditional one- way magnetic switches that use a core reactor to "set-up" the induction and operation of the switch.

Obviously our goverment has many more tricks up there sleeve if this has been in development since the 50's.

An interesting side not is that this material is lightweight, very strong semi resistant to heat. The UFO video that is seen "bouncing" in the desert and then on the second impact, could be made of this material. A research report shows that while SAM material is quite strong when it reaches its breaking point the material displays a unique "shower of sparks" from the energy released when it breaks.

This could be what we see when the "UFO" makes its second impact, breaking the SAM material and disintegrating it in a huge shower of sparks.

Ames Labs in Iowa has developed a tungsten B material that is very strong and can take rapid high freq oscilation. I bet that "anti-grav" or "UFO propulsion" systems are right under our very noses and in fact have been in development since right after WWII.

It seems to me that all the components are there, just spread here and there between different companies.

Developed at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center(MSFC), this technology is a novelmethod for electroplating ultra-high-strength glassy metals�nickel-phosphorous and nickel-cobalt-phosphorous�in a variety of alloys with different properties. Traditionally, these metalsare deposited onto substrates via electroless deposition. NASA Marshall�s technology combinesthe material properties associated with electroless deposition with the many process advan-tages afforded by electroplating. This innovative technique offers several benefits and can beused in numerous commercial applications.
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For More InformationIf you would like more information about this technology or about NASA�s technology transferprogram, please contacteter LiaoNASA Technology Applications TeamResearch Triangle InstitutePhone919) 541-6124Fax919) 541-6221E-mail:[email protected] TechnologyNASA Marshall Space Flight Center has developed an innovative new process for electroplatingnickel-phosphorous and nickel-cobalt-phosphorous into high-quality, ultra-hard coatings. Thesemetals usually are deposited onto parts by electroless deposition, which involves placing the partin a bath containing nickel ions that evenly coat all exposed surfaces. Although it yields a high-quality coating, electroless deposition does not allow for much process control, requires highprocessing temperatures, and has a slower deposition rate than with electroplating. Better processcontrol is available through electroplating, which involves placing a voltage across a nickelelectrode (i.e., anode) and the part in a solution (i.e., cathode) and thus driving the nickel to coat the part via electrolytic processes.Since NASA needed hundreds of high-quality X-ray mirrors for its next generation X-rayobservatories, researchers sought to develop a metal deposition process that yielded high-qualitycoatings similar to electroless deposition but with the process controls provided by electroplating.This technology is the result of their extensive research.NASA Marshall�s technology enables stress-free plating, deposits glassy metal alloys at higherrates, and provides deposition at a much lower processing temperature than with electrolessdeposition. Plating rates are constant and predictable, and coatings can be extremely hard. Theversatile process can be used to electroform free-standing shapes with any specified size orthickness using soluble anodes for metal replenishment. Coating materials can range fromnonmagnetic to highly magnetic metals, metals with glassy nickel properties, free machiningalloys, corrosion-resistant alloys, decorative blue oxides, and nonreflective black oxide. Thisprocess also mitigates the need for constant chemical metal replenishment. The phosphorous isreplaced at 1:1 consumption, unlike the 5:1 rate of electroless processes. Buildup of harmful by-products is minimal, and solutions can be left unattended for very thick deposit growth. Thesefeatures result in a safer and more environmentally favorable process.Commercial OpportunityThis technology is part of NASA�s technology transfer program. The program seeks to stimulatecommercial use of NASA-developed technologies. A patent application has been filed for thistechnology, and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center seeks companies interested in licensing it for commercial uses. NASA is flexible in its agreements, and opportunities exist for exclusive,nonexclusive, and exclusive field-of-use licensing.CommercialApplications� Telescopes,microscopes� Compact discs� Computers� Chromiumreplacement� Automobiles� Decorative,wear-resistant,corrosion-resistantcoatings� Molds� Aircraft, militarycomponentsSammy NaborsNASA Marshall Space Flight CenterTechnology Transfer DepartmentPhone256) 544-5226Fax256) 544-3151E-mail:[email protected] w w . n a s a s o l u t i o n s . c o m


216.239.57.104...:UHj7jNF6yXQJ:techtran.msfc.nasa.gov/tech_ops/TOA_glassy.pdf+Glassy+metal&hl=en&ie=UTF-8


WOOT... Type in Glassy metal in to google!! Third site Down ATS.

www.google.com...


[Edited on 31-3-2004 by SpittinCobra]

[Edited on 31-3-2004 by SpittinCobra]