Liquid Metal

LEDBE
Re: Liquid Metal...But what are the applications?

well, buildung a Terminator, of course!
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
bernhard
 
Re: Liquid Metal...But what are the applications?

i've given serious thought to useing this in a flashlight design, but it wouldn't work for luxeons, due to poor thermal conductivity /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

i believe that it would work in non-luxeon lights well, and be much cheaper to produce on a large scale, but i'm uncertain what kind of finishing options might be available.
 
Re: Liquid Metal...But what are the applications?

That is dome pretty neat stuff.
Its amazing how much it keeps bouncing. Just alittle more, and it would bounce as high as it was dropped from, and never stop bouncing!
 
Re: Liquid Metal...But what are the applications?

I posted about this last year in the Arc forum. Turns out it has lower electrical and thermal conductivity. The mold costs are very expensive too. I signed the NDA in February and was supposed to get samples, but they never appeared.

Peter
 
Re: Liquid Metal...But what are the applications?

How does this work?

The only non alloy liquid metal is mercury. On the website it says this is some sort of alloy. How do you make this stuff, and what is it made of?
 
Here's a non-Microsoft media link for the ball-bounce ...

The finishing options seem to be pretty decent, Roth, at least according to the limited information available at the site. They reference both fine jewelery, and medical appliances and tools as uses.

Interesting sounding stuff.

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Metallic gallium is a metal at room temperature, but melts in your hand. This is the same stuff they make LEDs with, but gallium arsenide, indium gallium arsenide, gallium phosphide, gallium aluminum arsenside phosphide, and similar compounds amost certainly have a higher melting point, or LEDs made with them would melt in your hands and in your mouth too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
where elso do you put your LEDs, Craig?
ah ... never mind, some things are better left in the obscure ...
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
bernhard
 
This is certainly a very interesting metal! I am surprised at the omission of nitinol in their relative comparisons and this omission makes me wonder if their alloy isn't somewhat akin. They don't discuss pricing but hint at usage in consumer products. This alloy is certainly more friendly than nitinol.

Very interesting and promising!

- Don
 
I'm choosing to remain very skeptical until I read more about this. Here's why...

- The video states it's "a metallic glass"

Looks as though it'd behave as a non-Newtonian fluid, like glass or Silly-Putty. In other words, it might have some great dynamic strain characteristics but strike it quickly and it'd shatter.

I wouldn't want to make anything that I might drop out of what I've seen so far of it.
 
There are lots of cool materials developments on the horizon. This one is very cool V8. Injection molded Magnesium/Zinc/Aluminum/Copper/ alloys are being used to make lots of the new PDA, cam corder, digital hand held device enclosures. I showed around a sample of that at the CA BBQ. It seems like this particular "Liquid Metal" company is trying to get it out of R&D and into the commercial sector. There are always trade-offs.

If you really want cool-then do a search on "nano-composites". That's where I'd be putting my R&D money. I helped develop a nano composite fly rod using quartz fiber. Great rod-steep price. Cool, new technology costs big bucks. Plastic is fantastic /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/buttrock.gif
 
Re: Liquid Metal...But what are the applications?

[ QUOTE ]
IlluminatingBikr said:
How does this work?

The only non alloy liquid metal is mercury. On the website it says this is some sort of alloy. How do you make this stuff, and what is it made of?

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know about this alloy, but most other low melting point alloys contain Bismuth. This is non toxic heavy metal that is often used as a replacement (a bit more expensive though) for lead when requiring shot for use on game reserves. When Bismuth is alloyed it tends to create alloys with a much lower melting point. These lower melting point alloys each have a specific menting point, and alloys are available that go from a range of somewhere about 15-20 deg C and upwards. These are used for things such as mould casting of prototypes and the manufacture of thermal fuses. Two popular low melting point alloys are "Fields metal" and "Woods metal" Try searching for these on google for more info.

P.S. Bismuth also has some rather unusual magnetic properties, in that when brought near a magnet it will produce a repelling magnetic field of the opposing polarity.
 
Re: Liquid Metal...But what are the applications?

Knifemaker R.W. Clark is a pioneer in using this stuff, it was the cover story in Blade magazine a few months ago. There's also a long ongoing thread about it at Bladeforums.
 
Re: Liquid Metal...But what are the applications?

From the info on the Liquidmetal website it still looks as though it's a glass, do you agree? A metallic glass, but a glass with all the dynamic problems that come along with being so. Can't tell for sure, though, and if a knifemaker is using it successfully, then I guess it may be okay. But if anyone has a link to some real data on this stuff please post it! (Thanks)

There sure isn't much info there at all. No stress/strain charts, no melt temp, no nothing except marketing blather. Even Lumileds offers more real data than the LiquidMetal hype. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
Re: Liquid Metal...But what are the applications?

[ QUOTE ]
UK Owl said:
Two popular low melting point alloys are "Fields metal" and "Woods metal" Try searching for these on google for more info.

P.S. Bismuth also has some rather unusual magnetic properties, in that when brought near a magnet it will produce a repelling magnetic field of the opposing polarity.

[/ QUOTE ]

Field's metal can melt in hot water - that's why I've been looking for it in the BST section. It seems the only place online that sells it is scitoys.com, which has it for $8 a foot. Just some OT info...

Back on topic, this liquid metal is interesting - anyone played with it yet?

Dan
 
Re: Liquid Metal...But what are the applications?

When I was at Bell Labs we had bars of Wood's down in supply, and one of the guys cast some spoons from it and left them in place of the normal spoons next to the 'public' coffee pot in his office ...

He greatly enjoyed the looks on his fellow nerds and geeks faces as their spoons melted when they put it in their coffee.

<font color="#666666"> He did pour the resulting cup of coffee through a filter to recover the Wood's, and washed out the cup for his victims - and let them use a real spoon. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif Wood's is a bit poisonous. </font>

He caught some decent Polaroids of very confused guys. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

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Re: Liquid Metal...But what are the applications?

Cheaper supply of low temp melting alloy:
Micro Mark
look under "Resin, Wood, Metal, etc"
Then under "casting and molding supplies"
They have type 160 alloy which melts at 160F
11.4 oz bar for 13.50 (sale ends 9/16/03)
 
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