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Article: Second-Hardest Material Discovered.(aluminum-magnesium-boron compound)(Brief Article)
- Article from:
- R & D
- Article date:
- December 1, 1999
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1999 Advantage Business Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Cubic boron-nitride was the second-hardest material known to man, after the diamond. But researchers at Ames (Iowa) Laboratory, Ames (515-294-9673), discovered that an aluminum-magnesium-boron compound with a small amount of silicon mixed in actually deserves second place.
Though the material is not new, no one had investigated its mechanical properties. The Ames researchers found its hardness by accident. "We have highspeed, precision diamond saws in the lab that can cut virtually anything, and we weren't able to cut this material," says Bruce Cook, the lead investigator of the project. "That caught our attention."
Tests revealed that the ...