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Post by DEKE on Jun 9, 2019 23:30:25 GMT
Hey Joe, or anyone else.
I'm about to throw my BS Foul flag. I'm looking on Amazon for a gas stove diffuser and I found one made of 100% aluminum steel. Is there any such thing?
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Post by Ozarks Tom on Jun 10, 2019 0:27:16 GMT
Apparently it's the real deal
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Post by BrewDaddy on Jun 10, 2019 0:46:07 GMT
Wow... I would have thought it was a typo or Chinese optimistic thinking... I'd seen some pots/pans on Amazon called Aluminum Steel and thought it was just crummy copy editing from the marketing folkzen at the Chinese source....
bd
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Post by joebill on Jun 10, 2019 15:46:22 GMT
I am skeptical. If you google around looking for amazing new metals you will find all sorts of breakthroughs that never really come to life in the real sense. Machinists and blacksmiths usually lump them together under the name "unobtainium" because they will never be listed by any metals company for sale by the bar, strip, billet, pipe or any other way.
Metals are created in labs all of the time that will never see production at least in this century and by the ton. the article Tom linked above included this paragraph later in the text;
" Currently, steelmakers use a silicate layer to cover and protect mass-produced steel from oxidation with the air and contamination from the foundry. This silicate can't be used for Kim's steel because it has a tendency to react with the cooling aluminum, compromising the final product. Before we starting building skyscrapers out of super-steel, they'll have to figure out a way to protect the material out in the real world."
Plenty more problems, too. Aluminum swells and shrinks more with temperature changes than any other material I know of. I dunno how a blend of that and steel would behave in the real world, but I betcha it would be interesting to find out. It is also known for rapid and nasty surface oxidation and to blend it in to molten steel would need a fantastic flux indeed to keep it from vaporizing at molten steel temperatures.
I ran into other articles about breakthrough aluminum alloys that did not include steel and lots of variations on the same theme. We already have some great alloys on hand. Next time you junk a desktop computer, take out that aluminum hard drive disc or discs and after donning safety glasses see how hard it is to tear up. You can do it, but it is tough stuff.
My guess on the stuff being advertised is that it is aluminum/steel, NOT aluminum-steel, but I was wrong once before.....Joe
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Post by DEKE on Jun 10, 2019 16:59:18 GMT
Like Brew, I thought it was a typo and I'm still thinking that's the case. Some of the competitor products that look similar are made of a steel shell with an aluminum interior. And fitting with what Joe said, the reviewers are complaining that the metals separate after a few heat cycles, making it a piece of junk.
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Post by joebill on Jun 10, 2019 17:07:47 GMT
Of course they separate. They have created what amounts to a bi-metal strip, which is the design used on cheap thermometers. Rivet the steel and aluminum together with a slight separation between the two and heat it up. Aluminum stretches a LOT, steel just a little, creating a curve in the strip that can be used to operate the indicator that points at the temperature numbers on the scale.
Clamping or screwing aluminum to steel or other metals also causes the fasteners to rot out from electrolysis, which is why we burned all those buildings and house trailers to the ground in the past with aluminum wiring. Connections got loose, sparks happened, then fires......Joe
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