New Metal May be Shaped Like Plastic
Yale scientist Jan Schroers demonstrates the new bulk metallic glass. Image courtesy of Yale University.
The low cost and durability of plastic has ensured its widespread use in consumer packaging and food and beverage containers. Plastic’s ability to be easily molded into complex shapes has been a critical factor to its success in these functions.
Yale University researchers have recently developed a metallic material that may be fabricated like plastic. Metals have a crystalline structure that provides strength but requires multiple, costly steps for processing. However, the Yale scientists’ new material, called a bulk metallic glass (BMG), has a structure made of randomly-arranged atoms and a low rate of cooling. These traits allow the material to be injection-molded as quickly and cheaply as plastic.
According to Yale material scientist Jan Schroers, "This could enable a whole new paradigm for shaping metals. The superior properties of BMGs relative to plastics and typical metals, combined with the ease, economy and precision of blow molding, have the potential to impact society just as much as the development of synthetic plastics and their associated processing methods have in the last century."