Mithril is the new black.
Posted on 11/24/2006 8:00:41 AM PST by stockpirate
The flammable issues are not an issue with this material.
And it cannot be reverse engineered to boot.
Perfect for handgun frames.
Public Co.?
Yes indeed perfect!
Can it be tinted blue-green? It could be called "Rearden Metal"...
Google is your FRiend:
http://www.azom.com/details.asp?ArticleID=356
Magnesium Alloys - Zirconium Free Casting Alloys
Background
Magnesium casting alloys can conveniently be divided into two basic groups zirconium-free and magnesium-zirconium alloys. The first commercially available group of zirconium-free alloys were Mg-Al-Zn based, the most widely used alloy being AZ91 (Mg 9%Al 1 %Zn 0.2%Mn). Other alloy systems include Mg-Al-Si, Mg-Al-rare earth and Mg-Zn-Cu alloys. Mg-Al-Zn alloys are cheap but are also difficult to cast successfully. Sand castings are prone to outcropping, microporosity, and achieving pressure tight castings can be a problem unless extensive sealing treatments are carried out. AZ91 is used primarily in high pressure die cast form particularly by the automotive industry, as car makers worldwide aim to reduce vehicle weights in order to improve fuel economy.
Sand cast Mg-Al-Zn alloys have reasonable properties in the T6 condition up to 120°C, although strength then decreases rapidly with increasing temperature and mechanical properties can vary substantially depending on section thickness. Despite these drawbacks, AZ91 castings are used in some aerospace applications, including complex aerospace sand castings such as the Westland Sea King helicopter gearbox.
Introduction of high purity variants of these alloys with lower levels of heavy metal impurities (iron, copper, and nickel) has significantly improved corrosion performance. The sand casting alloy AZ91C has now been largely replaced by its high purity variant AZ91E which has a corrosion rate around 100 times better in salt fog tests.
ZC63 alloy (Mg 6.0%Zn 3.0%Cu 0.5% Mn) was developed as an easy to process, commercial grade alloy. The North American automotive industry has shown particular interest, and ZC63 engine castings, including cylinder blocks and sumps, are being tested as a possible replacement for other materials.
Key Properties
· Light weight
· Low density (two thirds that of aluminium)
· Good high temperature mechanical properties
· Good to excellent corrosion resistance
Applications
Aerospace applications such as castings for gearboxes, transmissions, intermediate compressors, auxiliary gearboxes, generators, canopies and engine components.
Due to their light weight and mechanical properties they are used in motor racing applications to reduce vehicle weights.
Other applications include electronics, sporting goods, nuclear applications, office equipment, flares, sacrificial anodes, flash photography and tools.
Primary author: L. Duffy
Source: Materials World, vol. 4, pp. 127-30, 1996
For more information on Materials World please visit The Institute of Materials http://www.iom3.org/
No not a public company yet, we plan on taking it public in 3 years. Right now there are 10 of us that own the company, privately held.
Well, maybe a bike for sightseeing. But a racing frame should be fairly stiff. Not so stiff that it is dead, but stiff enough so that not much energy is absorbed by the alloy and deflected from getting to the wheel. This is especially important in climbing and sprinting.
I guess it comes down to how "not to stiff" your alloy is.
Mithril is the new black.
I hear you, I have some idea of how he must have felt with his product!
Very informative post.
I am not a liberty to mention who is looking at out material presently, but the automotive and aircraft industry are some of them.
Can we get any samples?
Some pieces of rod or sheet stock to be used for machining evaluation for instance?
Yes of course you may, if your freepmail me, I will snd you my phone number.
What applications would you be using it for?
Antenna booms.
Communications antennas; strong, lightweight booms are essential.
How does that stuff 'weather' - any cold flow? Any cracking due to constant flexing for instance?
One of our partners is a big bike racing guy ad he is having a cusotm frame made from our material.
Okay, keep me posted on how he does with it if you would.
Best of luck and I hope the program is a success.
Will do just that!
If it's 20% stronger than 6061, it's still weaker than 7075. Everybody has been conditioned by years of infomercials touting products made of "6061 aircraft quality aluminum". A quick look in Machinery's Handbook will tell you that 6061 is inferior to other aluminum grades in just about every respect: hardness, tensile strength, shear strength, etc. So 6061 isn't much of a standard to gage other alloys against.
We started tests with the most basic Mag alloy, we can apply the process to other mag alloys and are in the process of doing just that. We expect the next round of tests to increse this to 40-50% range over 6061 T6
6061 T6 is in fact the workhorse of the light alloy world.
As anyone with a brain can affirm.
We can also apply the process to Aluminum alloy's as well.
There are many Mag alloy's and we are in the process of using our process with each of them.
The developer of this process holds 25 Top Secret patents for DOD and Titanium, also introduced it to the golf world, so one would think he may know someting of what he is doing.
Oh, that is why we started with AZ(! too, it is the workhorse of the mag industry.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.