Liquid Metal

Was trawling the internet tonight and came across this stuff. I had heard of it as Apple bought into them with some exclusive contract, I guess to use on future products iphones/ipads/ipods and laptops. Saw this video and was amazed at the elastic qualities of this stuff. Surely springs made from this stuff would be incredibly efficient? It's a new technology but I'm sure there is the possibilty for loads of uses elsewhere on bikes due to it being over twice as strong as titanium, yet lighter and can be injection moulded like plastic. Some clever shit.

vid. it's like it's never going to stop bouncing
http://www.liquidmetal.com/media/ball_bounce_DSL.wmv

http://www.liquidmetal.com/index/

thats one hell of a bouncy ball

Rizoma have just bought some for Motoronins next batch of bling. After each crash the accessories just reform themselves like that dirty bird in Terminator 3.

I wonder what a full set of bearings made of this would perform like

I think it's the plate the balls are bouncing on and not the ball itself that is the liquid metal. It's all to do with non flash cooling crystal free metal formation in the transition from liquid to solid states apparently. Still cool though

what im failing to understand is how it will revolutionise the way metals objects are formed. does this mean that at seriously high pressures it acts like a liquid without heat?

i didnt watch the instructional video (due to being at work) but there is not much info on the actual site... it seems to be all marketing mumbo without much technical spec.

I means among other things that it can be injection moulded like plastics and so into any form you can think of and not lose any of it's crazy properties. No other metal can he handled this way and so saves a lot of money on expensive machining.

It has a variety of unusual properties all resulting from the non crystaline structure. As Klinck says it becomes ductile at low temps (700-900c) so can be formed in ways that normal metals can't. Also right up to the point it becomes ductile it retains almost all its strength which can be a similar to hardened steel. It also shrinks a lot less than traditional metals when cooling so if cast requires a lot less / no machiening etc. In many ways it behaves like a high strength glass. I'm not a materials scientist but my understanding is that there are many specialised applications but that large scale industrial use is unlikley at the moment because of issues to do with batch size etc.

very interesting, although by the looks of it, work hardening may become a thing of the past (looking at the structure)

plus side is metal fatigue may all but dissapear... cyclone proof roofs, airplane wing design and very small expenses. I hope i dont see the end of boiler makers and fitter & turners... that would be a shame.

only thing is, they dont say what sort of metal it is,,, although im pretty sure Zr stands for Zirconium which is as rare as hens teeth. Where do they plan on pulling this stuff from.

at least Iron ore is overly common... i need a pop corn emoticon

Is this the stuff they are starting to use in bullet proof vests?