Detroit Man Discovers Recipe For Stronger, Lighter Steel

[Treblaine]

I hope no one steals the idea.

Good for him though. I don't understand a word of how it works, but still, good.

So a 7% increase in strength, crazy high fracture ratings, and it takes less time to make it? So we can have this all in ten seconds flat?
Rainbow Dash would approve.

EDIT: I think we can safely say that this steel is 20% cooler.

Oh the irony

 

[NeonWraith]

Ain't it neat to be alive when important stuff happens. Especially science stuff, that's mah favorite kinda stuff.

P.S I hope people realize how great this will be for space travel expenses, Lots cheaper.

Um...steel is still WAAAY too heavy to use in space travel.

 

[Spacewolf]

I've been working in a mettalurgy lab the last 2 years... I've seen things, man.

EDIT: Ok talked to a couple people and checked out their website. Basically it looks like they're only doing this on steel under 10mm thick... which is garbage and useless for so many applications. Essentially they're just doing a surface hardening, except it's so thin it works right through the entire thickness. We heat treat steel up to 3.5" thick (~100mm), so this process simply can not work.

YES! Someone who knows about metal in this thread!!! Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaah. If only you were the journalist who reported this it would have gone ignored.

I already thought of the thinness of his MARTENITE process, and figured if a long piece was quenched and then folded it could be a cheap way of having high carbon folded steel, or if many thin layers were welded together it could be a cheap alloy that's close to folded steel. In those two cases, it's just a cheap way of producing folded steel or a folded steel substitute. Yes it has been a hundred years since martenite was discovered but are we so stupid we have to rename it 'flash bainite' wtf.

a Bainite crystal structure is quite different from a martinite structure so unless they incorrectly identafied the structures it would be quite different from the heating quenching of the late middle ages. It also says flash heated rather than just flash cooled like standard proctice is and has been. Not to mention quenching quickly usally leads to a brittle but hard structure rather than a tough one which is why they may cool it in oil.

 

[HellenicWarrior]

That's amazing!

No formal training yet revolutionises hundreds of years of understanding...

Hats off to you sir!

 

[CosmicCommander]

Would his wife be named Dagny Taggart by any chance?

Oh hai Hank. Oh hai John. Oh hai Norwegian Pirate.

OT: Fantastic. Inspiring, and useful to us all. Congrats Gary!

 

[synobal]

I've been working in a mettalurgy lab the last 2 years... I've seen things, man.

EDIT: Ok talked to a couple people and checked out their website. Basically it looks like they're only doing this on steel under 10mm thick... which is garbage and useless for so many applications. Essentially they're just doing a surface hardening, except it's so thin it works right through the entire thickness. We heat treat steel up to 3.5" thick (~100mm), so this process simply can not work.

YES! Someone who knows about metal in this thread!!! Yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaah. If only you were the journalist who reported this it would have gone ignored.

I already thought of the thinness of his MARTENITE process, and figured if a long piece was quenched and then folded it could be a cheap way of having high carbon folded steel, or if many thin layers were welded together it could be a cheap alloy that's close to folded steel. In those two cases, it's just a cheap way of producing folded steel or a folded steel substitute. Yes it has been a hundred years since martenite was discovered but are we so stupid we have to rename it 'flash bainite' wtf.

It's a shame small details like this don't make it into the story. Part of me wonders if reporters these days aren't interested in getting the full story or if reporters were always so terrible.

 

[Stormcloud23]

Anyone else getting a Hank Rearden vibe from this guy?

 

[talideon]

I'm sorry but dissect it with a bomb or with a scalpel, the guy said: "It is impossible." and "It shouldn't work."

I'll agree that the scientist changed his stance and it's for the better, but you have to be closed-minded when a complete explanation is given to dismiss it on the basis that you've never heard of that, think it's impossible or, in your knowledge, that "behavior" shouldn't work/happen.

Skepticism is -wanted- and -needed-. You can't just take anyone's word for granted, but making claims like "this or that is impossible" is pedantic when you have a knowledgeable enough fellow with all the science of his claim. You may be, and should be, doubtful, but dismissive? Never.

There's ALWAYS someone more intelligent, more strong, more inventive, more... Nothing has been fully done and everything is not known and invented. There's always a better way, as hard as some people might believe otherwise.

Again, that scientist was "intelligent" enough, or curious enough, or just plain wanting to humiliate Mr Cola, we'll never know, but he went there and saw.

I would argue that the scientist did *exactly* the right thing initially by being highly skeptical.

Consider for a moment the number of kooks, cranks and nutcases he likely receives unsolicited "revolutionary discoveries" from. Compound that with the fact that we've been doing metallurgy for a *very* long time and the physics of steel production is very well understood at this point. I mean, jeeze, in my field alone, I've seen enough cranks churning out papers on the information theoretical equivalents of perpetual motion machines (usually in the areas of cryptography and compression) to keep my house nice and cozy for years. I can only imagine the amount of crap a metallurgist with any sort of public visibility must have to wade through from nutters.

So yes, being dismissive is the *right* thing to do: it makes most of the nutters to go away. The bar has to be placed somewhere. Somebody with actual hard science, OTOH, will take a "that's impossible" and understand it as "show me the money" and pony up the data that proves they're onto something.

I have to say, I'm seriously disappointed in the level of anti-intellectualism (which is something, I should point out, that TheMadJack is *not* guity of) in this forum.

 

[General Vagueness]

next step: transparent aluminum
seriously, I thought we were approaching the end of what can be done with metallurgy and would have to use new materials to advance, this is interesting and exciting news, because if there's one thing (or more like a few things) humans know how to do it's work metal

 

[talideon]

next step: transparent aluminum

We already have (kinda): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aluminium_oxynitride

A transparent aluminium alloy, OTOH, is somewhat unlikely, but ceramics, well, *that* is another story entirely.

 

[Firehound]

That's the kind of stories we don't see/hear enough of!

What I hope this guy did with the professor is, after successfully doing his thing, go to him, smirk and tell him close to his ear, almost a whisper: pwned.

That brings me to this: elitist arseholes like this professor. He didn't doubt, he just plainly said: "Oh but that's impossible Sonny." and probably laughed in his face. Now, THAT is why so many, oh so many, things are so eff'ed up today. So many people with their minds closed or up their you-know-where.

I bow to Gary Cola. Congrats to you sir.

Nah, probably just said "THAT's NOT TRUE. THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"

To which the response was once it was proven, "Search your feelings, you know it to be so."

 

[Souplex]

Does this mean Detroit will have industry again?

 

[thisguyfromthere]

The moral of this story? College degrees are for chumps (assuming you can simultaneously revolutionize the field of materials science and global production capacity).

Yeah, never mind all the advances made my university graduates, one win by the uneducated inspired genius clearly proves all education wrong. Now, to find a brilliant amateur surgeon...

Way to take the joke in stride, there. Are you this uppity in real life?

EDIT: Really? You both were joking? Uh, okay. Never... mind?

 

[crepesack]

http://www.bainitesteel.com/licensing.asp

He's already starting a company on it and has licensing going on. I think he's got it made in terms of $$$$$$$ from here on out.