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The problem with metamaterials that have interesting macro-scale properties has always been manufacturing them cost-effectively and in quantity. It hardly matt
by logfromblammo 8y ago
The problem with metamaterials that have interesting macro-scale properties has always been manufacturing them cost-effectively and in quantity.
It hardly matters if this stuff has a better strength-to-weight ratio than titanium if it also costs 1000 times as much to make an airplane wing out of it.
"Metallic wood" is a very misleading term, too. The material in question is nickel with a cellularized structure resembling wood, rather than a cellulose variant that has undergone some process that bestowed metal-like properties upon it. A more accurate term would have been "xyloid metal" or "ligneous metal".
- jandrese 8y agoPlus other factors like the failure modes or how it fatigues in use or how badly it is affected by corrosion or unfortunate thermal constraints. There are plenty of super light and strong but materials that are not suited for use in vehicles or large structures due to a practical limitation of the substance. Nobody wants to build an airliner wing that is 70% of the weight of a regular wing, but also explodes into a million tiny pieces when it suffers a bird strike.
- MrLeap 8y agoNickel tends to be very corrosion resistant. Though these properties are probably diminished by the increased surface area of the porous topology. I run a small forge. Every alloy I've used will corrode way faster if it's not been finished smooth. I can only imagine how fast a metal (even nickel) foam oxidizes.