New miracle material for boats? Metal that floats!!

[first wind]

Originally Posted by Stumble

The problem with these super hydrophobic coatings and texturing on a hull is that they don't stop growth. Barnacles, slime, ect can all still attach and since you can't use both a hydrophobic coating and anti-fouling you boat will quickly look like a forest.

Unless of course you are willing to dive on it daily to wipe down the surface, which will also sand off the texturing pretty quickly.

good point. however the article makes this claim as a counter argument:

"In addition to water-repellent, the treated metal also becomes self-cleaning, in that the repelled water picks up and removes dust and other contaminates as it rolls off. And, unlike coatings, the treatment doesn’t wear off, since the laser etching transforms the material’s surface itself with a complex, nano-scale pattern."

i imagine that's what they would be referring to about cleaning. probably not effective for a vessel that rarely leaves the dock.

[hellosailor]

Stumble-
There actually were press releases last(?) year about researchers making a micro-textured coating that emulated the texture of sharkskin. Barnacles and such like to grow on whales, but not sharks. So they got curious about why.


And the microtexture seems to be all it takes to send barnacles elsewhere. You, maybe "Barnacle Bye Bye Boat Wrap" coming one day to a shop near you.(G)

[first wind]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

Stumble-
There actually were press releases last(?) year about researchers making a micro-textured coating that emulated the texture of sharkskin. Barnacles and such like to grow on whales, but not sharks. So they got curious about why.


And the microtexture seems to be all it takes to send barnacles elsewhere. You, maybe "Barnacle Bye Bye Boat Wrap" coming one day to a shop near you.(G)

they have been working on it for a long time. my father had a lot of old popular science magazines when i was a kid (during the 70s). i loved to read them. one of them had an article about them trying to emulate sharkskin. the idea was to use it for military applications...subs and things. the skin texture of a shark is very slippery and is one of the reasons they are so fast. seems to have been a tough nut to crack. those magazines were old when i was reading them.

[Sojurnr]

Yeah, magnesium is the fuel used in military flares. The brilliance of the the flare virtually turns night into day within a significant radius, say 1-3 miles of the flare floating beneath its own little parachute from, say 3-6,000 feet above the ground. As far as I know, the only way to extinguish a magnesium fire is by completely eliminating any source of oxygen-even that contained within water.

A few years back, a friend was the proud owner of one of the early 1960's VW window vans in great condition. Somehow, probably due to an electrical short, the magnesium engine block got hot enough to ignite. When it had finally burned itself out, there was literally nothing left of his van but a molten slag puddle of mixed metals and glass.

Sojurnr

[woodyapex]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Doesn't Magnesium burn readily?

Youve watched too much mcguiver

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by woodyapex

Youve watched too much mcguiver

Not really , we used to machine it and titanium. They can ignite just from machining. ... and a normal fire extinguisher does no good!

[nimblemotors]

Have you seen this one..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87x7i8R9qoE

[jheldatksuedu]

Originally Posted by woodyapex

Youve watched too much mcguiver

Magnesium does burn extremely well and very hot, it has been used as an emergency fire starter for outdoorsmen for a long time, you have a kit with a little magnesium block, and a flint stick. The problem is getting the magnesium to start burning, it needs to get very hot, so you have to shave off thin slivers of it with your pocket knife so a spark from the flint and steel knife can heat it enough to ignite it, once ignited it burns extremely hot, enough to start a fire even it the small pieces of wood are damp. I suspect most of the McGuiver show actually could happen.

[hellosailor]

Aluminum also burns very hot. That's also called "thermite", and that's aluminum dust (easier to start it burning) which is set off by a smaller powdered iron charge, more or less.


Emergency responders will also tell you that they avoid any burning VW bug, among several other cars, because if the magnesium (!) used in part of the engine lights up, there's no real putting it out.


And yet, there are also magnesium cooking pots, used on stoves with flames every day and perfectly safe, because they don't combust at those "cold" stovetop temperatures.

[belle-isle]

Originally Posted by travellerw

Aluminum (or Al-u-mini-um for our Aussie friends )

Aussies, but also Kiwis, British, and South Africans. For that matter, even German, Dutch, French, Norwegians, Danish, Swedish use Aluminium. As for the Spanish, Italian and Portuguese Speakers, they also use the form Aluminio, so there's pretty much only North Americans using the weird Aluminum form

[valhalla360]

Originally Posted by first wind

good point. however the article makes this claim as a counter argument:

"In addition to water-repellent, the treated metal also becomes self-cleaning, in that the repelled water picks up and removes dust and other contaminates as it rolls off. And, unlike coatings, the treatment doesn’t wear off, since the laser etching transforms the material’s surface itself with a complex, nano-scale pattern."

i imagine that's what they would be referring to about cleaning. probably not effective for a vessel that rarely leaves the dock.

Dust and dirt not clinging is much different than growth on a submerged object.

Likewise, wearing off is much different than corroding off.