User-agent: Mediapartners-Google* Disallow: Trucks World News: TRUCKS / AUTOS' R & D * USA
Google
 
Loading

Jan 5, 2012

TRUCKS / AUTOS' R & D * USA

* USA - Super-Light Metal Could Underpin Vehicles. Cars could be built with material that is 99.99% air.

Malibu,CAL,USA -WardsAuto, by Leah Germain and M.J. Deschamps -Dec 23, 2011: -- A new metal structure developed by U.S. scientists, so light it dramatically cuts down drag and improves fuel efficiency one hundredfold, could find its way into vehicles someday...  Claiming it is 100 times lighter than Styrofoam, an innovative new material called a micro-lattice has been developed by the California Institute of Technology, HRL Laboratories, based in Malibu, CA, and the University of California-Irvine...  Based on a crisscross lattice structure on a micro-scale, the material is made up of a series of tiny, hollow nickel-phosphorous tubes angled to connect at nodes, which form repeating, asterisk-like unit cells in three dimensions...  The micro-lattice’s unique structure consists of 99.99% air, and just 0.01% material. The tubes have a wall thickness of 100 nanometers – 1,000 times thinner than a human hair...  By replacing primary structures in cars and airplanes with micro-lattice, manufacturers will be able to produce lighter and more fuel-efficient products...  The material’s cellular architecture also gives it unprecedented mechanical behavior for a metal, which includes a complete recovery from compression – exceeding 50% strain – and an extremely high level of energy absorption, the researchers say...

Labels:

posted by Unknown @ 7:15 AM 

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home