
Engineers develop bone-like metal foam that can be 'healed' at room temperature - respinal
https://phys.org/news/2019-08-bone-like-metal-foam-room-temperature.html
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reportgunner
The only interesting part seems to be that it resembles bone and "repair" can
be called "healing" instead.

> _While this room-temperature approach is not truly "self-healing" because it
> requires an external power source and raw materials, Pikul sees it being in
> line with how self-healing occurs in the body._

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sp332
Bone requires an external power source too.

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TeMPOraL
And raw materials.

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lawlessone
them bones them bones need calcium!

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newsbinator
This is a fascinating technique and an interesting step forward.

I noticed:

> The new nickel, however, reduces the healing efficiency when repeatedly
> using this technique. Because the healed areas no longer have a polymer
> coating, nickel would continue to amass there should another piece of the
> sample need to be healed.

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AstralStorm
Yes, so I reckoned this won't be useful for "growing" foam or big breaks. At
that point you'd fashion a right shape chunk of foam and fuse it on both sides
I suppose.

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rectangletangle
This is interesting, I'm curious what applications this would be useful for.
They hint at some potential uses toward the end, but don't elaborate much.

Presumably it'd be useful in applications where the parts would normally fail
regularly.

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shakna
I'd also assume it'd be useful for repair of critical components that undergo
trauma. Such as bridges, and buildings that might be struck by vehicles, or
repairing prosthetics and other things that can be damaged at the same time as
the human they're attached to.

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dsfyu404ed
You'd need to make your bridges out of this fancy metal foam instead of boring
old (read: "cheap") hot rolled I beams. That would be a massive technical
challenge. It's theoretically possible but would require new construction
techniques. At the very least we'd need to figure out a new way to protect it
from the elements that doesn't negate the self healing properties (this foam
doesn't look closed cell, hello corrosion) Probably expensive beyond all
practicality.

Furthermore, vehicles basically just bounce off the structural elements of
bridges and other structures like that. It's not really a problem.

If anything we'll see this kind of stuff used in expensive niche applications.
Low volume bespoke electronics in high vibration environments would benefit
from being able to "heal" like this. I can also see it being useful when
applied as a coating that protects the material underneath, basically a self
touching up paint job (like galvanizing, but possibly with a wider array of
materials than just zinc). This could be very useful for items in corrosive
environments.

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cellular
How does it not short out when the foam isn't completely severed? It seems
like the electroplating current would just short circuit through the non-
broken connections.

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sayusasugi
Can we please stop with the clickbait scientific discoveries? They all follow
the same formula of: 'x develops y which can "z"'. Where "z", which is always
in quotes, is a gross sensationalization of some discovery or effect.

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reportgunner
Thank you, yes.

