New glass, ductile and stronger than steel

[icarus]

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases ... ops-steel/

Makes one wonder about the transparent vacuum vessels of the future glowing with weird and wonderfully coloured plasmas ....

[djolds1]

http://newscenter.lbl.gov/news-releases ... ops-steel/

Makes one wonder about the transparent vacuum vessels of the future glowing with weird and wonderfully coloured plasmas ....

Amorphous metals aren't quite "glass" in the commonly understood sense. But they are wonderful for 3D printing - easy to inkjet-extrude, useful as bulk structural members.

[DeltaV]

But they are wonderful for 3D printing - easy to inkjet-extrude, useful as bulk structural members.

Cool, I can 3D print my Polywell space hopper. Got a reference?

[djolds1]

But they are wonderful for 3D printing - easy to inkjet-extrude, useful as bulk structural members.

Cool, I can 3D print my Polywell space hopper. Got a reference?

No, just some reading from a few years back that amorphous metals can be extruded at low temperatures, and the obvious personal extrapolation that such properties are perfect for 3D printing. Might've been from Brian Wang's NBF.

[KitemanSA]

I really hate it that they keep calling this stuff "glass". It is amorphous metal. Grumble, grumble.

[krenshala]

I really hate it that they keep calling this stuff "glass". It is amorphous metal. Grumble, grumble.

Glass is an amorphous silicate, and this appears to be an amorphous silicate with multiple metals in it, so technically I think it can be properly referred to as a glass.

Of course, the counter to that argument is silicon doesn't appear to be the primary ingredient, at least not according to the article.

[GIThruster]

Old stuff, Peeps. This stuff was pioneered at Cal Tech more than a decade ago and is already in the consumer market, in things like skis. Berekely is just publishing to play CMA since they haven't got shtick.

Old, old news.

http://www.liquidmetal.com/

Only real difference I can see is the new stuff is ductile whereas the stuff in consumption is injection molded and not marketed as "ductile".

[kcdodd]

I think it is funny the research you choose to dismiss, considering the research you defend.

[KitemanSA]

I really hate it that they keep calling this stuff "glass". It is amorphous metal. Grumble, grumble.

Glass is an amorphous silicate, and this appears to be an amorphous silicate with multiple metals in it, so technically I think it can be properly referred to as a glass.

I didn't delve too deeply, but this seems to be amorphous metal with metalic silicon, not silicate. But...

[choff]

To the layman, if you can see through it, it's glass or transparent plastic.

[icarus]

I think it is funny the research you choose to dismiss, considering the research you defend.

Quite, it may be the difference of perspective between a lowly "technician" sweating on the front-line of cutting edge research and a mere parasitical broker of "technologies", real or imagined. Ductile glass is ho-hum "schtick" out of Caltech and warp drive research is all-there but for some much needed funding pies to stick fingers thumbs into ...

Delusions of grandeur must do odd things to a person's logical thought processes.

[happyjack27]

didn't they invent something like this in one of the star trek movies to keep a whale in the transporter room?

[djolds1]

didn't they invent something like this in one of the star trek movies to keep a whale in the transporter room?

Transparent aluminum.

[kunkmiester]

We already have transparent aluminum too. Not sure it's one of these funky materials, but I remember reading about it a few years back.

[Giorgio]

Only real difference I can see is the new stuff is ductile whereas the stuff in consumption is injection molded and not marketed as "ductile".

Right... what diference can this make?
Kinda like when in 1400 they discovered that Iron could be transformed in ductile Steel. Old news also that one and it really didn't make any difference in the end, didn't it?