Things are heavy right now, man. People are fighting wars, Wall Street is occupied, a large percentage of the workforce can’t find jobs, airport security procedures intensify in complexity by the minute, the rainforest is shrinking as I type … and that’s just the tip of the rapidly melting iceberg. So if you’re already feeling like Atlas with the weight of the world on your shoulders, you’ll be glad to find out that scientists recently invented a material so lightweight it makes styrofoam seem as heavy as a lead ingot.

In fact, “with a density of just 0.9 mg/cm3 the material is around 100 times lighter than Styrofoam and lighter than … ‘multiwalled carbon nanotube (MCNT) aerogel’ – also dubbed ‘frozen smoke’ – with a density of 4 mg/cm3” (Quick). Learn more about aerogels here.

Researchers at UC Irvine, HRL Laboratories and Caltech created an “ultralight metallic microlattice,” which, due to its nanoscale structural configuration vaguely reminiscent of the Eiffel tower, which consists 99.9% of air.  The scientists claim that it is the lightest material on earth.  To make the material, researchers fabricated “a lattice of interconnected hollow tubes with a wall thickness 1,000 times thinner than a human hair” (Netburn). It’s so unbelievably light that the researchers made a version out of nickel, placed it on top of a dandelion and … nothing happened; check it – the stalk didn’t even bend:

Photo: Ultralight metallic microlattice — which is 99.9% air — is so light that it can sit atop dandelion fluff without damaging it. Credit: Dan Little / HRL Laboratories

So how, aside from dandelion decoration, might we use an ultralight metallic microlattice?  The new material demonstrates impressive strength and energy absorption, with the ability to recover from compression exceeding 50% strain.  The small wall thickness-to-diameter ratio of the material allows the individual tubes to remain flexible and absorb energy (Quick). The microlattice demonstrates potential for awesomeness across a wide range of applications. It could be used for catalyst supports, acoustic dampening, as impact protection, vibration dampening, in the aerospace industry, possibly in airplanes to save weight and corresponding jet fuel, bike helmets, or maybe even battery electrodes.

I’d like to know if the manufacturing process is scalable, if it’s toxic in any way, what the cost is to make the material, and if its performance decays over time.  But it’s exciting to think about the possibilities – and to imagine little ultralight metallic microlattice samples floating delicately to earth like so many swan feathers floating on the breeze.

WU XING:

The lightest material on earth has been filed … in earth (and metal).

Cited:

Netburn, Deborah. “Scientists Invent Lightest Material on Earth. What Now?” Los Angeles Times online. 11/17/11. Accessed 11/21/11.  URL.

Quick, Darren. “Newly Developed Metallic ‘Microlattice’ Material is World’s Lightest.” Gizmag.com. 11/17/11. Accessed 11/21/11.  URL.

Special thanks to @BBQSnob for the tip.

Even thinking about glass fiber reinforced plastic (GFRP) makes me itchy. The reason for this is that the glass strands involved with this material are so fine (by which I mean that they are extremely thin and tiny, rather than that they are really really ridiculously good looking) that they get caught in your skin and clothes and become profoundly irritating, after the manner of a wood splinter or Brett Favre.

Image courtesy taiwan.xpshou.com

At the Actuated Matter Workshop in Zurich, we were introduced to a particular configuration of GFRP developed by Loop.pH, which I have dubbed, “Lo-mein GFRP” due to its noodle-esque appearance. The material is much stronger and stiffer than pasta, however, which allowed us to bend it into circles and secure the shapes with small brass tubes.  I found out that if you bend Lo-mein GFRP too far, it fails spectacularly, emitting a quiet yet somehow disdainful pfffffft noise and spraying glass fibers everywhere like needle-sharp, toxic fairy dust.

GFRP circles can be intertwined and woven into a kind of structural textile that can take various forms according to the number of circles combined in any particular configuration.  For example: if you take one circle and surround it with five other circles and connect all of them, you will produce a spherical construction; if you surround your starting circle with six other circles you get a flat surface; and if you ring your circle of origination with seven other circles you will achieve a floppy but endearing hyperbolic paraboloid (aka saddle shape).

Spheres, circles, and saddles can be combined to form almost any surface you can imagine, from a column (a flat sheet, rolled into a cylinder) to a triply periodic minimal surface constructed entirely of conjoined saddles.  The construction we built at the workshop to support our sound, light, and movement modules was a just this sort of minimal surface, and it was glorious.

Invisible itchy splinters aside, I enjoyed working with GFRP because it’s lightweight, extremely strong, and delightfully robust.  It’s not as strong or as stiff as carbon fiber but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper and it’s much less brittle.  The material is commonly used for boats (holla!), automobiles, hot tubs, water tanks, roofing, pipes, cladding and external door skins, and less commonly it is used to make interactive architecture.

Please check out this video featuring the final installation and make it a great day!

Actuated Matter Workshop from materiability on Vimeo.

WU XING:

I filed GFRP under wood because it’s bendy and fibrous. And because I call the shots around here.

Day to day I tend focus primarily on specific materials and how they’re unique and different from each other.  I’m interested in how or why a material was developed and I like to think about ways it might become useful. But sometimes it’s also fascinating to think about the things materials have in common, and to consider how different substances might be able to do the same job at different scales.

Image courtesy good.com

Designer Dror Benshetrit of Studio Dror likewise stumbled across a unique geometric configuration while working in his studio – geometry that functions as a joint, and which can be used to build anything from tiny objects you can hold in your hand to massive structures such as bridges and highway partitions.  Called QuaDror, the geometry was recently presented at the Design Indaba conference in Cape Town.  Diagonal framing members interlock and carry gravity loads, while simultaneously resisting lateral loads. The geometry can be produced from flat sheets, and it expands to resist loading.

QuaDror from Dror on Vimeo.

Images courtesy Studio Dror

“QuaDror’s multi-scalar application is an advantage, allowing the joint to be applied in small models, buildings, and bridges alike. Given its rapid assembly and light weight, it may also be utilized in disaster recovery housing. Perhaps the system’s greatest contribution is the convincing demonstration that form and performance are mutually beneficial” (Brownell).  It makes me wonder – is this design so compelling because it feels fractal?  Are there any specific materials whose properties enhance the performance of the geometric configuration?

WU XING:

This one gets filed everywhere and nowhere!

Cited:

Brownell, Blaine. “Quadror” Transmaterial.net 03/04/11. Accessed 04/19/11. URL.

How can you not fall madly in love with bamboo?  It’s tall, ridiculously strong, and you can bring it home to your mother.  The source of bamboo’s heady blend of charisma and reliability is “its growth system, which generates a root system that produces 30% more oxygen and sequesters 35% more carbon than a like-sized timber forested area. This growth pattern allows bamboo to grow faster and straighter than any known tree species, meaning a shorter maturity period, i.e. a more renewable resource” (Smith).  Additionally, this wondergrass can be found sprouting away on nearly every continent, which means it’s nearly always geographically desirable.

Images courtesy Lamboo

Bamboo can be used for flooring, furniture, and now there’s a new structural material made from LAMinated bamBOO called Lamboo (get it?).  Lamboo has been developed by Lamboo Inc. (a research, development and manufacturing company working to produce sustainable design technology).  It reportedly “outperforms traditional structural materials as well as reducing environmental impact. Lamboo has three times the structural capacity of timber, achieving longer spans with less material. The use of Lamboo in a project can add up to four LEED credits for rapidly renewable materials, low-emitting materials, environmentally preferable materials and lifecycle/environmental impact” (Smith).  Think of it as a greener alternative to glu-lam with a little more span and a lot more pizazz. 

WU XING:

This is a no-brainer: wood. 

Cited:

Smith, Amanda. “Structural Bamboo by Lamboo Inc. Greens the Heart of Construction.” 3rings 03/22/10.  Accessed 03/31/10.  URL.