7 thoughts on “A New Steel Alloy”

1. They made Rearden Metal?

2. Would it be too much to ask the author of the article to find out how much stronger titanium is than steel?

   1. Titanium is stronger than Aluminum and lighter than Steel.

      Titanium is weaker than Steel and heavier than Aluminum.

3. No mention of how well it can take heat, or fatigue properties. If fatigue operates more like steel than aluminum I can see some good uses even if it can’t take much heat.

4. This reminds me of two other supposed breakthroughs: metal foams and amorphous (non-crystalline microstructure) metal. Both were touted as major strength-to-weight improvements over existing materials, but the manufacturing techniques lagged. I think that amorphous titanium made it into some golf clubs, but I’m not aware of any other production applications. Anybody know?

5. A perhaps more mundane advance is Alcoa’s Micromill technology, which goes from molten aluminum to sheet in 20 minutes, with great improvement to the material’s microstructure over conventional methods. Ford is said to be going to use this in the F-150.

   http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/news/news_detail.asp?pageID=20141204000246en&newsYear=2014

6. Around ten years ago, there was some talk on the knife forums about a steel alloy that could go from cast to ready-for-use without needing heat treatment. I’m pretty sure that if it had been the real thing I’d have heard more about it by now. Metallurgy, like any other science, has its share of poorly-checked findings and flat-out snake oil.

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