Alumina wheels?

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The Magnificent Seven
Oct 16, 2005
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Virginia
hey all, ive seen these pics around and was wondering if anyone else had information on 'em, or if they're just a hoax.

im not even sure if it's called alumina.
 

wingman

sucka got blammed!
Sep 11, 2005
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Boostedstr8six said:
I'm thinking BS...

...a sizeable pile of it.


...your thinking wrong

Heard about it last year. Appearantly its a molecular layer upon layer of aluminum oxide, basically clear aluminum anodizing that goes through the base metal, and they keep layering it on top of that. They havent made anything useful out of it besides this and a few watches that likely cost into the 7 figures, but a must for any serious star trek fan.
 

daledoe

KILL U
Nov 18, 2005
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wingman said:
...your thinking wrong

Heard about it last year. Appearantly its a molecular layer upon layer of aluminum oxide, basically clear aluminum anodizing that goes through the base metal, and they keep layering it on top of that. They havent made anything useful out of it besides this and a few watches that likely cost into the 7 figures, but a must for any serious star trek fan.

So who made those rims???? Do you know???
 

wingman

sucka got blammed!
Sep 11, 2005
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daledoe said:
So who made those rims???? Do you know???


i don't....right now i'm trying to find the site that had actual blocks of aluminum oxide for sale, but they are EXTREMELY expensive, and I'm not even 100% sure on the process they use to make it, especially since anodized layers of oxide are a few thousandths of an inch thick. It's been so long since I've seen it that I don't know if they even exist anymore, but I'm looking.
 

jimi87-t

Active Member
Oct 12, 2005
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I wonder how strong it is? It would be crazy if it is strong enough to CNC a head out of it, could you imagine seeing the cams and valves all working!.....or wait....I guess all the oil would muck it up........NM
 

Mr.PFloyd

I am the Super Devil
Jun 22, 2005
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this is old news. ill try to find more pics of those hweels, but infact it is real. But i remeber when i saw these the first time, i thought wow cool! but then later i relaized its a dumb design. Brake dust for oen would be a PITA to clean every goddamn time, but also, the brakes wouldnever have any circulation of air to cool them faster. as said beforew ill try to find more hi res pics of it.
edit. found some
dorsetoinvisiblerims17hk.jpg

dorsetoinvisiblerims29cr.jpg
 

Boostedstr8six

I have better SA than you
Mar 30, 2005
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Near Columbia, the river
wingman said:
...your thinking wrong

Heard about it last year. Appearantly its a molecular layer upon layer of aluminum oxide, basically clear aluminum anodizing that goes through the base metal, and they keep layering it on top of that. They havent made anything useful out of it besides this and a few watches that likely cost into the 7 figures, but a must for any serious star trek fan.

Hearsay. I did a good amount of googling and only found the same two images and zero info. Give me some solid info on those wheels like cost, manufacturing process, actual materials, etc.

I'll bring down the :bsflag: when we see some solid information.

If those images are undoctored then I would guess they are lexan and probably not very useable outside of looking interesting. JMO
 

wingman

sucka got blammed!
Sep 11, 2005
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Phoenix, AZ
Boostedstr8six said:
Give me some solid info on those wheels like cost, manufacturing process, actual materials, etc.
i quote directly from wikipedia:

"As a powder or solid formed by sintering (welding together small particles), alumina is opaque or translucent. Recently, a method of sintering very small particles of alumina has been developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Sintered Materials. This sintered alumina is very hard, nearly transparent, and has a very high melting point (2303 kelvins), yet like other sintered materials it can be produced at temperatures much lower than its melting point. In 2004, Anatoly Rosenflanz and colleagues at 3M in Minnesota used a "flame-spray" technique to alloy alumina (aluminium oxide) with rare-earth metal oxides to produce strong glass with good optical properties. The method avoids many of the problems encountered in conventional glass forming and may be extensible to other oxides."


that is for transparent alumina....here's another link from physicsweb and the accompanying picture showing differnt opaques and the fact that it can be shaped, which means that a wheel is certainly not out of the question. As far as cost, there isn't any sign of it being commercially available, so cost is probably more than most people are willing to pay. I believe that those rims were simply a "proof of concept" demonstrating a possible use for the material.




another possibility is that is it composed of ALON....but i doubt it
 

Boostedstr8six

I have better SA than you
Mar 30, 2005
401
0
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Near Columbia, the river
wingman said:
i quote directly from wikipedia:

"As a powder or solid formed by sintering (welding together small particles), alumina is opaque or translucent. Recently, a method of sintering very small particles of alumina has been developed by researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Sintered Materials. This sintered alumina is very hard, nearly transparent, and has a very high melting point (2303 kelvins), yet like other sintered materials it can be produced at temperatures much lower than its melting point. In 2004, Anatoly Rosenflanz and colleagues at 3M in Minnesota used a "flame-spray" technique to alloy alumina (aluminium oxide) with rare-earth metal oxides to produce strong glass with good optical properties. The method avoids many of the problems encountered in conventional glass forming and may be extensible to other oxides."


that is for transparent alumina....here's another link from physicsweb and the accompanying picture showing differnt opaques and the fact that it can be shaped, which means that a wheel is certainly not out of the question. As far as cost, there isn't any sign of it being commercially available, so cost is probably more than most people are willing to pay. I believe that those rims were simply a "proof of concept" demonstrating a possible use for the material.




another possibility is that is it composed of ALON....but i doubt it

Yeah, but how does that prove anything about the wheels being made of that? Just to make tiny little samples takes a lot of process and is extremely costly.

Look at you last link a little more closely...notice it says the samples are "Bulk". There is no way those are any kind of alumina ceramic. It's way too specialized and expensive.
 

Facime

Leather work expert
Jun 1, 2006
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The same effect could be created using a hubless wheel at all 4 corners, but the engineering would be incredibly complex. Its being done on motorcycles, so why not cars though?