Free Republic

President Trump in Thursday's debate responded to Democratic nominee Joe Biden's call for plexiglass at restaurants amid the coronavirus pandemic by saying plexiglass is "not the answer." During a portion of the debate focused on the pandemic, Biden said restaurants will need to have plexiglass dividers, among other resources, "so people cannot infect one another." The president countered, "When you talk about plexiglass, these are restaurants that are dying." "These are businesses with no money," Trump said. "Putting a plexiglass is unbelievably expensive and it's not the answer. I mean, are you gonna sit there in a cubicle wrapped around...

Aluminium oxynitride or AlON is a ceramic composed of aluminium, oxygen and nitrogen. It is marketed under the name ALON by Surmet Corporation. AlON is optically transparent (≥80%) in the near-ultraviolet, visible and midwave-infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. It is 4 times harder than fused silica glass, 85% as hard as sapphire, and nearly 15% harder than magnesium aluminate spinel. Since it has a cubic spinel structure, it can be fabricated to transparent windows, plates, domes, rods, tubes and other forms using conventional ceramic powder processing techniques. ALON is the hardest polycrystalline transparent ceramic available commercially. Combination of optical...

Transmittance spectrum of the 54Al2O3-46Ta2O5 glass in the UV/vis region. The inset picture shows the glass sample used for the transmittance experiment. Credit: (c) 2015 Scientific Reports (2015). DOI: 10.1038/srep15233 $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ (Phys.org)—A team of researchers with The University of Tokyo and Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute has created a type of glass that is stronger than many metals. In their paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers describe how they overcame one of the major hurdles in creating glass imbued with extra amounts of an oxide of aluminum, by using what they call aerodynamic levitation. Glass that does...

ALON® is an amazing new advanced ceramic that is based on a composition of aluminum oxy nitride with a cubic spinel crystal structure. It is hard, durable, and transparent in the near ultra violet, visible and near infrared wavelength of light. ALON® is synthesized and manufactured in tonnage commercial quantities by Surmet Corporation, the global leader in transparent optical ceramics technologies. Surmet is vertically integrated and synthesizes tonnage quantities of high purity ALON® powder for its own use. Surmet is a supplier of ALON® optical windows, domes, plates, rods and tubes for advanced applications. Fabricated ALON® products combine superior mechanical...

(Phys.org) —When a molten material cools quickly, parts of it may have enough time to grow into orderly crystals. But if the cooling rate is too fast for the entire melt to crystallize, the remaining material ends up in a non-crystalline state known as a glass, with atoms caught in place essentially as a frozen liquid. Recently, a group of researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) came across an unexpected reversal of this usual sequence of events. After cooling a molten alloy of aluminum, iron, and silicon, they found that glassy nodules of a non-crystalline solid...

A new type of transparent armor made of aluminum could one day replace glass in military vehicles. The product is called aluminum oxynitride. It is being tested by the Army and the University of Dayton Research Institute in Ohio. The material is a ceramic compound with a high compressive strength and durability, according to an Army statement issued this week. It performs better than the multilayered glass products currently in use, and its about half the weight. It is virtually scratch-resistant. "The substance itself is light-years ahead of glass," said 1st Lt. Joseph La Monica, who heads the research. Glass...