Purdue Calumet Professor To Forge Sword From Meteorite
Sometime this spring, Harvey Abramowitz of Chicago, a metallurgist and associate professor of mechanical engineering, intends to draw from the world of outer space to contribute to the creation of the strongest, toughest broadsword ever made: "The Dragonslayer."
Of even more interest is an earlier project briefly described at the bottom of the same article.
...production of a self-healing alloy composite in which thin memory shape alloy wires are imbedded in tin alloys. If the system is placed in tension, eventually the tin alloy will crack. By heating the material, the shape memory alloy filaments, which also had been stretched, return to their original positions, effectively closing the crack. To fully heal the material, it is heated enough so that liquid beads of tin form around the crack. Upon cooling, the tin structure is void of all previously formed cracks.Posted by bill at November 24, 2004 10:19 PM