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It's... 3D chicken wire? Not terribly impressed. From the video it shows that it's also super weak. You won't be building airplanes with this stuff. This obses

It's... 3D chicken wire? Not terribly impressed. From the video it shows that it's also super weak. You won't be building airplanes with this stuff. This obsession with super light materials that "are strong for their weight" seems a bit useless to me. It never seems to scales to something that weighs a medium amount while maintaining its strength to form something actually useful. Supposedly, spider silk is incredibly strong. But if you can't scale that strength there is no point to it. At least aerogel has purposes for extreme insulation, but as this is made out of metal I don't see use there either. Nevertheless, I applaud progress.

baldfat 10y ago
If the exterior is rigid and the inside is filled with this material it could be strong enough for many structural projects. As was shown in the video our bones are created in the same way. I think the issue will be cost.
- 13of40 10y ago
  Yeah, when I read about this before, I think they were making it with a 3D laser sintering technique, which comes with some baggage. Mainly it's slow and with current technology I don't know if you'd be able to print a continuous sheet of it versus the cubes they showed in the video.
VLM 10y ago
"Supposedly, spider silk is incredibly strong. But if you can't scale that strength there is no point to it." Actually there's a Japanese company that scaled it using all kinds of genetic engineering and biochemistry and supposedly North Face is shipping a jacket made of it in Japan for $1K "around now" although I can't find it on the website (only exists as press releases claiming it'll be released right about now). Two days ago according to this press release Kraiglabs started commercial production in the USA under a variety of interesting licenses and patents. http://www.kraiglabs.com/kraig-biocraft-laboratories-new-spider-silk-production-facility-now-fully-operational/ http://www.kraiglabs.com/kraig-biocraft-laboratories-new-spi... Spider silk is right on the cusp of wide availability. Very interesting material. Unless its discovered to cause cancer or something, you'll probably own some in a decade. You can do weird and interesting things with low density materials. I can think of some interesting applications for a Zeppelin sized piece of aerogel with embedded bars of conductive metal foam carrying a (solar generated?) current to resistively heat it. A Zeppelin sized piece of aerogel would be kinda expensive, right now. But someday we could make an island sized platter and cover it with solar cells dumping heat into it during the day and make a halfway decent eternally flying island. In my infinite spare time. The military industrial complex options are interesting. So there are some projectile weapons that ignore low density materials and go right thru (tank sabot round, etc) and others that crumble when they hit anything (some high velocity small caliber rounds, perhaps a HEAT tank round could be triggered by impact no matter how low the density). Meanwhile I'm sure its not very good for the aerogel but I wonder how much energy it dissipates blowing apart in a shock wave, that has some interesting shielding effects for soldiers. Here's a helmet liner that makes you concussion proof exactly once while it turns to dust. Or maybe not.
colechristensen 10y ago
>obsession with super light materials that "are strong for their weight" seems a bit useless You couldn't be more wrong. Most of aerospace design is about optimizing ratios. Thrust/weight; strength/weight; specific impulse for rockets (∂momentum/∂fuel); lift/drag; lift,drag/velocity.... etc. etc. etc. Aircraft structures also have an amplification factor. For every 1 pound of stuff in the aircraft you'll need 5 pounds of structure. Saving small amounts of weight can have big consequences in the range/fuel economy/speed/etc. metrics. This material wouldn't just be used by itself, it would be compounded with a few other materials to get the right strength characteristics desired. Compare it to the honeycomb material that's all over aircraft today; the honeycomb itself is barely more than shaped paper, but glued to thin sheets on either side, it's incredibly strong.
chmike 10y ago
Imagine that a big sheat of this material is put on a structure made of beams (e.g. Sphere). You then get a very solid and light object that has also some flexibility so that it doesn't break under high stress or hits.

baldfat 10y ago

If the exterior is rigid and the inside is filled with this material it could be strong enough for many structural projects. As was shown in the video our bones are created in the same way. I think the issue will be cost.

13of40 10y ago
Yeah, when I read about this before, I think they were making it with a 3D laser sintering technique, which comes with some baggage. Mainly it's slow and with current technology I don't know if you'd be able to print a continuous sheet of it versus the cubes they showed in the video.

VLM 10y ago

"Supposedly, spider silk is incredibly strong. But if you can't scale that strength there is no point to it." Actually there's a Japanese company that scaled it using all kinds of genetic engineering and biochemistry and supposedly North Face is shipping a jacket made of it in Japan for $1K "around now" although I can't find it on the website (only exists as press releases claiming it'll be released right about now). Two days ago according to this press release Kraiglabs started commercial production in the USA under a variety of interesting licenses and patents. http://www.kraiglabs.com/kraig-biocraft-laboratories-new-spider-silk-production-facility-now-fully-operational/ http://www.kraiglabs.com/kraig-biocraft-laboratories-new-spi... Spider silk is right on the cusp of wide availability. Very interesting material. Unless its discovered to cause cancer or something, you'll probably own some in a decade. You can do weird and interesting things with low density materials. I can think of some interesting applications for a Zeppelin sized piece of aerogel with embedded bars of conductive metal foam carrying a (solar generated?) current to resistively heat it. A Zeppelin sized piece of aerogel would be kinda expensive, right now. But someday we could make an island sized platter and cover it with solar cells dumping heat into it during the day and make a halfway decent eternally flying island. In my infinite spare time. The military industrial complex options are interesting. So there are some projectile weapons that ignore low density materials and go right thru (tank sabot round, etc) and others that crumble when they hit anything (some high velocity small caliber rounds, perhaps a HEAT tank round could be triggered by impact no matter how low the density). Meanwhile I'm sure its not very good for the aerogel but I wonder how much energy it dissipates blowing apart in a shock wave, that has some interesting shielding effects for soldiers. Here's a helmet liner that makes you concussion proof exactly once while it turns to dust. Or maybe not.

colechristensen 10y ago

>obsession with super light materials that "are strong for their weight" seems a bit useless You couldn't be more wrong. Most of aerospace design is about optimizing ratios. Thrust/weight; strength/weight; specific impulse for rockets (∂momentum/∂fuel); lift/drag; lift,drag/velocity.... etc. etc. etc. Aircraft structures also have an amplification factor. For every 1 pound of stuff in the aircraft you'll need 5 pounds of structure. Saving small amounts of weight can have big consequences in the range/fuel economy/speed/etc. metrics. This material wouldn't just be used by itself, it would be compounded with a few other materials to get the right strength characteristics desired. Compare it to the honeycomb material that's all over aircraft today; the honeycomb itself is barely more than shaped paper, but glued to thin sheets on either side, it's incredibly strong.

chmike 10y ago

Imagine that a big sheat of this material is put on a structure made of beams (e.g. Sphere). You then get a very solid and light object that has also some flexibility so that it doesn't break under high stress or hits.