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Some things they did get right…
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Misleading name, on the same level as calling water “non-explosive hydrogen”. That said the material looks promising, as a glass replacement for some applications (the text mentions a few of them, like armoured windows).
(It is not a metal; it’s a ceramic, mostly oxygen with bits and bobs of aluminium and nitrogen. Interesting nonetheless, even if I’m picking on the name.)
We’re gonna get transparent metal before the easy parts like to stop killing each other. Roll on Star Trek
TBF in the Star Trek universe they also do get transparent aluminum earlier than stopping the wars.
You misunderstand, we’re in the mirror universe.
In that respect, I suppose it’s more on the Star Wars track, where “transparisteel” is used on the TIE fighter windows.
Can I make a whale tank out of it?
They made the whale tank out of plexiglass.
They got the plexiglass by trading the formula for transparent aluminum for getting it.
3 times as tough as steel and they’re making bulletproof glass out of it…
There’s a low budget pc game about colonizing Mars and this was one of the things in the tech tree
Crazy to see it as a real thing now.
Like OG aluminum, this is going to be crazy expensive at first, but in a century it’ll likely be cheap and we’ll see it replacing glass in the most mundane uses.
We’ll see it replace phone screens pretty quickly tho. A few mm’s of this and we’ll have legitimately unbreakable screens, and even if a scratch happens, you should be able to just buff it out. They’re probably wrap entire phones it honestly. One solid piece that makes repair impossible on your own.
Might be hard to assemble the functional part of a phone inside of a crystal, and you can’t bake the whole thing because silicon isn’t surviving 2000oC for 2 days.
Yeah, but it was a lot harder to make regular aluminum back in the day as well.
Increasing ductility isn’t impossible, but it probably is unlikely in this case.
But two halves that get glued/sealed together permanently would be possible.
wouldnt that stop the radio waves from reaching the phone, like a faraday cage?
Good question. This new material is technically a ceramic, not a metal, so I’d be inclined to say no. But we’d need more information on its electrical properties to say for sure.
wouldnt that stop the radio waves from reaching the phone, like a faraday cage?
Like OG aluminum, this is going to be crazy expensive at first, but in a century it’ll likely be cheap and we’ll see it replacing glass in the most mundane uses.
I doubt that it’s ever going to be super affordable, or be used in something as common as a phone. The price constraints on aluminum were due to the amount of energy it takes to produce. The transparent aluminum is a bit more complicated.
From the article it appears the fabrication is mold dependent, which always increases production cost. So you have to fabricate a mold for any new component. You then have to then pressurize the powder at 15k pounds per square inch, and then heat aluminum powders at 2000 degrees Celsius for 2 days.
Transparent aluminum is so weird, a piece of it was once passed around our office. It felt heavier and colder than I expected, which I guess is probably because it’s much denser than most types of glass (I think it’s only comparable to optical glass so it would be close to holding a high quality glass lens) and it looks like the thermal conductivity is way higher.
No, Glass has an amorph atomic structure, its tecnically an ultra dense liquid, metal always has a cristaline structure, way different, even in it’s transparent form, Saphires and Rubies are also tecnically transparent Aluminium.
What do you mean no? Everything I said is true - I’m just describing my firsthand impression. Nowhere did I say transparent aluminum is a type of glass? I was just describing why it feels heavier and colder than you would expect since it looks like glass, of which most are less dense and less thermally conductive compared to transparent aluminum, which is not glass but makes sense to compare to in order to convey what handling a piece feels like.
I had no idea this actually existed! Cool!
Here’s a more novice-friendly link: https://hackaday.com/2018/04/03/whats-the-deal-with-transparent-aluminum/
Thanks for that. Really cool stuff.
“Aluminum oxynitride ceramics have been around since the 1980s, so it’s not new stuff by any means.”
Says it costs 5X the price of standard bulletproof glass, but that it’s far stronger, and IR-transparent. Cool material.
FWIW, this has been around for about twenty years.
Yeah of course, they learned it in the eighties to be able to rescue some whales I think…
Since 1985, one year before this StarTrek episode. But until now not producible in bigger scale.
This seems cool.
Also upvoted for the correct spelling of Aluminium
Looks like a cool new project for NileRed
Star trek comes to life, yet again.
This one goes the other way. It was first patented in the 80s before the movie came out. It just wasn’t a big thing yet. I assume it’s had improved properties since then, but the process already existed.
Unfortunately this is a time travel paradox. It wouldn’t have even been patented if the crew hadn’t gone back in time and needed it to transport a whale back to the future. I fully support the claim that Star Trek did it first in the future.
So, just as predicted by the Hitchhiker’s Guide, the problem begins with whales.
The StarTrek episode with the transparent Aluminium was from 1986, transparent Aluminium was invented in 1985, but at this time they don’t have the tecnologic measures to produce significant ammounts. Even today it’s relative expensive to produce, ~$15 per Square inch.
Would that make it a type of sapphire?
My thoughts too, what makes this alloy so amazing? It seems to me that sapphire is harder, and otherwise similar use cases
No mention/comparison to Sapphire in the article that I could see, disappointing.
Maybe it is the sintering process that makes it interesting, could be easier to shape maybe 🤔
Aluminum oxynitride is transparent aluminum, but alpha aluminum oxide, which is also transparent, is called Corundum, Ruby, or Sapphire. That name is dumb.
wait until they hear about transparent silicon
I dunno, sounds kinda dangerous.
How much would a transparent aluminum butt plug cost and would it be safe to use?
Very expensive as it needs a custom mold and 2 days at 2000C and specialized grinding as it’s not a flat surface. As for safety, it’s probably just as safe as regular glass
considering that sapphire and ruby are different versions of transparent aluminum (really) I would probably cost a ton but be entirely safe to use.
It’s also rather dense and stays quite cool to the touch. It would probably be amazing.
I would probably cost a ton but be entirely safe to use.
I mean my budget isn’t high but if you’re in I’m willing.
Well that’s quite the typo on my part. Not gonna change it though.
Probably be expensive to lose
