From the MIT Technology Review:
Nano-Manufacturing Makes Steel 10 Times Stronger
An inexpensive new process can increase the strength of metals such as steel by as much as 10 times, and make them much more resistant to corrosion. If the modified metals pass field testing, the new process could go on to make bridges and other infrastructure last far longer; it could also make cars lighter and therefore more fuel-efficient.
The Seattle-based startup that developed the process, Modumetal, is commercializing it in part with collaboration with the oil companies Chevron, Conoco-Philips, and Hess.
Some more:
Modumetal uses an advanced form of electroplating, a process already used to make the chrome plating you might see on the engine and exhaust pipes of a motorcycle. Electroplating involves immersing a metal part in a chemical bath containing various metal ions, and then applying an electrical current to cause those ions to form a metal coating.
The company uses a bath that contains more than one kind of metal ion and controls how ions are deposited by varying the electrical current. By changing the current at precise moments, it can create a layered structure, with each layer being several nanometers thick and of different composition. The final coating can be up to a centimeter thick and can greatly change the properties of the original material.
I am a blacksmith and knife maker and this made my inner geek sit up and say: MORE FASTER PLEASE!!!
Wondering if they would sell me some 1/8" plate. This will not be Damascus - the grain boundaries will be to fine to raise a pattern but the properties could be amazing. Another boutique steel manufacturer - Crucible Industries - discovered and embraced the blacksmith and knife-making market and have done very well by them.
The core idea is a very simple one and someone with a bit of chemistry and electronics should be able to try this idea out. The devil is in the fine tuning...
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