User:Jaron.sparling12

Composites

Composite materials, often shortened to composites or called composition materials, are engineered or naturally occurring materials made from two or more component materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties which remain separate and distinct at the macroscopic or microscopic scale within the finished structure. A common example of a composite would be disc brake pads, which consist of hard ceramic particles embedded in soft metal matrix. Another example is found in shower stalls and bathtubs which are made of fiberglass. Imitation granite and cultured marble sinks and countertops are also widely used. The most advanced examples perform routinely on spacecraft in demanding environments. Wattle and daub is one of the oldest manmade composite materials, at over 6000 years old. Concrete is also a composite material, and is used more than any other man-made material in the world. As of 2006, about 7.5 billion cubic meters of concrete are made each year—more than one cubic meter for every person on Earth. Composites are combinations of two materials in which one of the materials, called the reinforcing phase, is in the form of fibers, sheets, or particles, and is embedded in the other materials called the matrix phase. The reinforcing material and the matrix material can be metal, ceramic, or polymer. Typically, reinforcing materials are strong with low densities while the matrix is usually a ductile, or tough, material. If the composite is designed and fabricated correctly, it combines the strength of the reinforcement with the toughness of the matrix to achieve a combination of desirable properties not available in any single conventional material. The downside is that such composites are often more expensive than conventional materials. Examples of some current application of composites include the diesel piston, brake-shoes and pads, tires and the Beech craft aircraft in which 100% of the structural components are composites.

Spider silk and Goat Milk

It may be impossible to craft a silk purse from a sow's ear. But one day, it may be possible to fashion a silk bulletproof vest from, of all things, goat's milk. For decades, scientists have been studying about spider silk. They found out that spider silk is mere one-tenth the thickness of humans hair. Spider silk is 10 times stronger than steel and 3 times stronger than man-made fibers such as Kevlar. The material of spider silk gives people the idea for lighter bulletproof vests to safer suspension bridges. The challenge for everyone that is trying to do all of this new stuff is getting or harvesting the spider’s silk. Unlike getting silk from silkworms, it is a challenge to get silk from spiders which means spiders are not easy to domesticate. Tougher than Kevlar and stronger than steel, spider silk has long intrigued engineers and scientists because of its potential industrial and medical applications. Now, a biotech company in Canada has developed a method for producing artificial spider silk by inserting the genes for spider silk into the cells of mammals.