(July 3, 2012) Producing
strong, lightweight and complex parts for car manufacturing and the aerospace
industry is set to become cheaper and more accurate thanks to a new technique
developed by engineers from the University of Exeter. The research team has
developed a new method for making three-dimensional aluminium composite parts
by mixing a combination of relatively inexpensive powders.
Combining
these elements causes a reaction which results in the production of particles
that are 600 times smaller than the width of a human hair. Around 100
nanometres in size, the reaction uniformly distributes them through the
material, making it very strong.