Metal Floats On Water

A new metal composite able to float on water could allow a boat to stay afloat even after sustaining damage to its hull.

Created by a team from Deep Springs Technology (DST) and the New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering, the syntactic foam is the first example of a lightweight, metal syntactic foam—although other types of syntactic foams have been developed. The teams created the foam by reinforcing a magnesium alloy with hollow spheres of silicon carbide, resulting in material light enough to float on water yet strong enough to survive in the ocean environment.

The composite can be customized for different uses by adding more or less silicon spheres, and could applications in automobile parts, boat flooring and even vehicle armor.

Source: ideaconnection.comAdded: 19 May 2015