Lost-and-found wedding ring
Wild sourdough science
Metaklett is a steel velcro-like substance created by Josef Mair and teammates at Technical University of Munich. One square meter of it supports up to 35 tons at temperatures up to 800 degrees Celsius.
Extreme steel 'Velcro' takes a 35-tonne load (via IDSA)
Conventional hook-and-loop fasteners are used for everything from bandages to cable boots in aircraft and securing prosthetic limbs. Mair thinks his spring-steel fastener is tough enough to be used for building facades or car assembly. "A car parked in direct sunlight can reach temperatures of 80 °C, and temperatures of several hundred °C can arise around the exhaust manifold," he says, but Metaklett should be able to shrug off such extremes.The fastening is made from perforated steel strips 0.2 millimetres thick, one kind bristling with springy steel brushes and the other sporting jagged spikes.
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Keep in mind that it's 35 tonnes/m^2 in shear, but 7 tonnes perpendicular. That's 10 lbf/in^n, which seems pretty close to what normal velcro gets. The big win is in the temperature range.
What I would like to know is what sounds it makes. I keep imagining that it sounds like strumming an egg slicer.
But what do you use to attach the Steel Velcro stips to your items? Nails? Glue? Seems to me that the "fixed" adhesive needs to be even stronger than the Steel Velcro it attaches to (or the straps would pop right off!)...
an undoable interface for an interference fit?
The SF Bay Bridge could use a bunch of this stuff right about now...
Nice way to secure thermal wraps for exhaust manifolds.
I'd hate to fall on or brush up against a sheet of this stuff, it looks savage.
Still the same problem as velcro if the objects it's attached to are inflexible: it's hard to take it apart. At 35 tonnes or even 7 tonnes how do you pull it apart?
Still it's pretty cool stuff. Zero-g applications?
One square meter of it supports up to 35 tons at temperatures up to 800 degrees Celsius.
I can't go into details, but as a James Bond villain with a dastardly plan involving Michelangelo's David and the surface of Venus, this news really couldn't be more timely. Thanks, BoingBoing!
@KJH/#6: Someone else reports that this stuff is similar in strength to traditional velcro. 7000 kg/m^2 * 1 m^2 / 100^2 cm^2 = 7000/10000 kg/cm^2 = .7 kg/cm^2. So a 1 cm x 10 cm strip of the stuff requires a pull of merely 7 kg to remove (or less if you pry off the edge). No problemo.
Pretty clever engineering!
Wouldn't work in my car. I know for a fact that the inside of my car exceeds 800 C after being parked in the summer sun with the windows up.
That's very cool. Here is another variety manufactured with woven nylon tape impregnated with silver.
The US military is one of the largest users of this material. They use it in tents and other equipment to shield their electronics from stray radio frequencies.
As mentioned by others, this is not particularly strong. The apt comparison is not to fabric velcro but to conventional fastening methods, like bolting, welding, and riveting. This stuff would be advantageous only in situations where you need a system that's both reusable and finely repositionable.
Wonder if NASA would be interested, up in space depending on the position in orbit you are you can either experience extreme cold or extreme heat.
How does normal Velcro handle under those conditions?
Just a thought.
@#9 No real Bond villain would refuse to go into detail.
Answer @2:
MORE VELCRO
How does normal Velcro handle under those conditions?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_1#Cause
How do you seperate the two strips if it is that strong? Did i miss something?
@HarlanH
Same problem for velcro attached to hard objects. If it's attached to soft things you tear it apart bit by bit. Attached to hard objects you have to pull it apart all at once.