Polymers have been on the forefront of materials technology, along with certain other, more expensive, metals revolutionizing industries. Steel, however, is not far behind.<\/p>\n

Scientists are discovering newer concepts and techniques to make the Iron alloy better, lighter and stronger.<\/p>\n

And so, scientists have developed a new way of producing Steel by alloying it with Titanium, a metal extensively consumed by mission critical industries such as Aerospace. Titanium is the ninth most abundant metal in Earth\u2019s crust.<\/p>\n

The Concept<\/strong><\/p>\n

Material scientists at Pohang University of Science and Technology announced a major breakthrough of forming a new type of flexible, ultra-strong, lightweight titanium steel.<\/p>\n

This new alloy has a strength-to-weight ratio comparable to the hardest tempered titanium alloys. But since Titanium is in a smaller proportion, it, reportedly, comes at one-tenth the cost of making Ti alloys.<\/p>\n

The researchers claim that the new alloy can be used extensively in Automotive, Aerospace, Construction and allied fields.<\/p>\n

What Makes It Steel-Titanium Special<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the 1970\u2019s, Soviet-era researchers discovered that adding aluminum to Steel makes the latter an incredibly strong and lightweight metal. But there was a problem \u2013 brittle fracture. Although the fracture occurred at very high limits of force, it would break rather than bend (bent steel is less problematic) beyond that limit.<\/p>\n

This brittleness is because when alloying aluminum and Steel, many atoms in the two elements would inevitably fuse to form tough, crystalline structures that would break beyond a limit.<\/p>\n

The idea here is to add elements that would prevent the crystalline structure from splintering.<\/p>\n

The effort taken by the scientists involves heat-treating and then thin rolling the aluminium steel to control when and where the crystals were forming. The team also discovered that adding a small percentage of nickel offered even more control over the properties of the crystalline structure.<\/p>\n

The South Korean team claims that adding Titanium atoms to the aluminium Steel alloy prevented the formation of crystalline structures altogether as higher temperatures were involved. Upon reaching a certain limit, the new material would now bend rather than break, thus avoiding brittleness entirely.<\/p>\n

The new alloy is also 13% less dense than steel, making it lighter and thus higher in strength-to-weight ratio.<\/p>\n

Challenges<\/strong><\/p>\n

But before it can be mass-produced, researchers must confront a major production issue \u2013 steelmakers currently use a silicate layer to cover and protect mass-produced Steel from oxidation and contamination. But the same silicate cannot be used to mass-producing the new steel-titanium alloy as silicate has a tendency to react with aluminum at lower temperatures. A new protection method is in way.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The results achieved by the researchers at Pohang University have opened the floodgates to other, newer super-steel alloys.<\/p>\n

\n
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