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A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | M A R C H 2 0 1 5
1 0 TESTING | CHARACTERIZATION
BRIEFS
Testing equipment manufacturer Zwick/Roell, Germany, will hold its 6th annual
Zwick Academia Day on June 2 at ETH in Zurich. The event will include workshops
and lectures from leading materials experts. Winners of the annual Zwick Science
Award and Paul Roell Medal also will be announced. More than 100 papers from
15 countries entered the competition. .
LIMPET TEETH OUTSHINE
SPIDER SILK
A new study finds that limpet teeth
may be the strongest natural material
ever discovered. Researchers from the
Universityof Portsmouth, UK, found that
limpets—small aquatic snail-like crea-
tures with conical shells—have teeth
with biological structures so strong they
could be copied to make future auto-
motive and aerospace parts. The study
examined the small-scale mechanical
behavior of limpet teeth using atomic
force microscopy. Professor Asa Barber
led the study. His team found that the
teeth contain a hard mineral known as
goethite, which forms in the limpet as it
grows, and also discovered that limpet
teeth are the same strength regardless
of size.
SEM image of limpet teeth. Courtesy of University of Portsmouth.
“Until now we thought that spider
silk was the strongest biological mate-
rial, but now we have discovered that
limpet teeth exhibit a strength that is
potentially higher,” says Barber. “This
means that the fibrous structures found
in limpet teeth could be mimicked and
used in high-performance engineering
applications such as Formula 1 racing
cars, the hulls of boats, and aircraft
structures.”
USING EBSD TO DETECT
LOST SERIAL NUMBERS
Researchers at the National In-
stitute of Standards and Technology
(NIST), Gaithersburg, Md., demonstrat-
eda technique formappingdeformation
in metals that can recover destroyed
serial numbers on metal objects such
as firearms. Analysts typically try to
restore the numbers with acid or elec-
trolytic etching or polishing, because
deformed areas behave differently from
undamaged material. But these meth-
ods don’t always work.
In an experiment to recover destroyed serial numbers, NIST researchers hand-stamped X
imprints into stainless steel (left) to simulate a firearm serial number. Then they polished
away the imprints (middle, mm scale bar). The imprints were recovered (right) by combining
pattern quality maps, calculated by software, which reveal crystal damage and deformation
in the steel. Courtesy of White/NIST.
Winners of the 2013 Zwick Science Award.