April 19, 2016
AND THOSE SHOWER RINGS WILL LAST FOREVER:
New 3-D Printing Technique Makes Tougher Ceramics : A new way of making these tough materials could be a key step in producing better airplane engines and long-lasting machine parts. (Katherine Bourzac April 19, 2016, Technology Review)
Ceramics are some of the hardest materials on Earth. They can withstand extreme temperatures, and some are impervious to friction, scratching, and other mechanical stresses that wear out metal and plastic. But it can be difficult to make complex shapes out of the materials.Chemists at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, California, may have gotten around that problem by developing ceramics that can be made in a 3-D printer. The result: ultrastrong objects that are impossible to make using conventional methods.
Posted by Orrin Judd at April 19, 2016 3:34 PM