Newly Discovered Metal Alloy
“Skid” not “Drive” was the term used to describe the new alloy engineered at Sandia National Laboratories. The metal can make cars “skid” around the Earth’s equator 500 times before wearing out the thread.
The materials science team from Sandia National Laboratories has engineered a platinum-gold alloy believed to be the most wear-resistant metal in the world. For the first, high-strength steel has a metal that surpasses its durable properties in the making of auto parts.
The new alloy has been placed in the same class as diamond and sapphire in terms of wear-resistance property. It is the first alloy (combination metals) to possess such quality. In a finding reported in the advanced materials, it stated that the team showed the fundamental change you can make to alloys to create the impact leading to the tremendous increase in performance over a broad range of real, practical metals.
The fact that all the metals that repeatedly rub against other metals, especially in engines are said to be “strong” does not mean they do not wear out over time. Metals wear down, deform, or corrode over time except when a protective layer is created known as the ‘barrier’ in the form of additives in the motor oil. There is no metal or engine part without a lifespan, even in the presence of lubricants.
A source said that moving metal-to-metal contacts in electronics; receive similar protections to outer layers of gold or other precious metal alloys. Meanwhile, these coatings are expensive and do wear too like those found in engines.
The major cause of the wear is the pressing of the connections as they slide across each other on daily bases. The wearing process in electronics is gradual and does take years of continuous crossing for the wear to become noticeable.
In the electronics aspect, the less material means small connections and that will be proportional to how the wear will occur and how long it will stay before it can be condemned.
When tested, the Sandia’s platinum-gold coating lost only a single layer of atoms after a mile of skidding on the hypothetical tires. Its ultra-durable coating has been found to be of high benefit to the electronics firms with the potential of helping them save more than $100 million annually from materials alone.
The new material is expected to make electronics of all sizes and be very useful across many industries making their products to be more effective, long-lasting, and dependable. The range areas of application of the alloy can start from microelectronics for cell phones and radar systems to aerospace systems and wind turbines.
“the alloy has the potential of providing reliability benefits for a range of devices, the opportunities for integration and improvement would be device-specific, but this material would provide another tool for addressing current reliability limitations of metal microelectronics components” according to Engr. Chris Norquist in Sandia’s lab.
Perhaps, the old theory didn’t see the combination of 90 percent platinum with 10 percent gold as a new metallurgical practice. However, the idea of improvement was not there based on the belief that it may not yield any useful production. “But the engineering has changed making everything new for further studies” according to the expert response.
The old theory said that “the metal’s ability to withstand friction is based on how hard it is”. Based on the success of the new material, the Sandia team proposed a new theory that states that “wear is related to how metals react to heat, not their hardness”. To extend the detail behind the theory, the team was able to handpick metals, proportions, and fabrication processes for explanation purposes.
According to a postdoctoral appointee at Sandia, John Curry, many alloys were developed to increase the strength of a material by reducing the grain size. Even in the presence of extreme stresses and temperatures many alloys will coarsen or soften under fatigue.
A test conducted with the new material of platinum-gold alloy showed an excellent result in thermal and mechanical stability. Its change in the microstructure over immensely long periods of cyclic stress during sliding was not noticeable.
The alloy’s silver-white appearance creates a feeling of ordinary platinum. It is a little heavier than pure gold but not harder than other platinum-gold alloys. However, when it comes to heat & wear resistance it beats all other alloys.
