Microlattice, a metal that’s 99.99 percent air, is the newest creation from Boeing, the airplane manufacturer. It’s light enough that it can rest on the top of a dandelion without harming it, and it can be blown away in a breath of air, but it is strong enough that it can be pressed without breaking its structure.
In a video on YouTube, Boeing said it wants to use this new creation in airplane components such as the overhead bins or the walls or floors of the plane. It could help in the development of airplanes that are lighter and more fuel efficient in the future.
Sophia Yang, a researcher featured in the video, explains the concept using the egg drop example. In science class in school, students are challenged to figure out how to drop an egg from a window without breaking it. Using something like Microlattice to wrap the egg would allow it to reach the ground without breaking because the material would absorb the shock.
“What we can do is back-design the Microlattice to absorb the force that the egg feels,” she said. “So instead of having an egg that is wrapped in three feet of bubble wrap, now you have a much smaller package that your egg can sit in.”
The material is a lattice, hence the name, constructed of connected hollow tubes that are 1000 times thinner than human hair. The cellular structure of the material is similar to that of human bones, which means that it’s porous but rigid. The open cellular composition inside is what keeps it light. In fact, it’s so light – 100 times lighter than styrofoam – that when it’s dropped, it will float to the floor, but it won’t break because it retains the durability of metal.
The material can also stand up to compression, and it has the ability to absorb energy, which means it could be used for acoustic, vibration, and shock absorption.
Yang added, “It’s really exciting to be able to work with things that we can make that can eventually go into a real product that a lot of users can interact with.”
Microlattice was first introduced in 2011 after research funded by a joint partnership with the University of California Irvine, the California Institute of Technology, and HRL, the lab owned by Boeing and General Motors. They have been working on the material since 2007.
Bill Carter, the manager of the Architected Materials Group at HRL, said, “We are revolutionizing lightweight materials by bringing this concept to the level of the materials and designing their architectures at the nano- and micro-scales.”
He mentioned that modern buildings such as the Eiffel Tower and Golden Gate Bridge have an architecture that is lightweight and efficient.
The lab hopes that in the future, the material can be used on airplanes and spacecraft for NASA. Because of the high manufacturing costs, it will be a while before the metal can be used for cars.
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