New ultra-strong lightweight steel alloy

[Gnarly Gnu]

"Today a team of material scientists at Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea announced what they're calling one of the biggest steel breakthroughs of the last few decades: an altogether new type of flexible, ultra-strong, lightweight steel. This new metal has a strength-to-weight ratio that matches even our best titanium alloys, but at one tenth the cost, and can be created on a small scale with machinery already used to make automotive-grade steel."

 

Sounds like 'Rearden Metal'. Again we currently appear to be living in some hybrid combination of Atlas Shrugged and The Camp of the Saints.

 

 

[bexrbetter]

I hate to be cynical but I hear this "new metal" news almost as often as "new battery" news.

 

Nothing ever seems to come of them and more likely the Uni justifying it's funding or looking for more.

 

 

[djpacro]

Unless they also increase Young's Modulus as it is of limited use.

 

 

[geoffreywh]

Being a skeptic I can only hold my breath.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

For how long?

 

 

[bexrbetter]

For how long?

I can do it for 6'1".

 

 

[DrZoos]

Even if it is a break through it would be a long long long time before I would fly in it...when carbon fibre and aluminium first got used in most sporting applications, its fail rate was more than ridiculous, 100x dangerous and 1000x acceptable risk... mountain bikes took 10 years to get it right... the good thing was you could take it back to the shop for a warranty...somehow in aircraft....i think they might be combing through the dirt trying to find the failed part.

 

 

[Ada Elle]

Unless they also increase Young's Modulus as it is of limited use.

Where do you need the extra stiffness?

 

(My metallurgy experience is limited, but I understand that alloying +- heat treatment tends not to increase Young's modulus, only UTS.)

 

The fact that they call it 'flexible' suggests that the modulus is not improved.