Paul, having been away for  a while I am curious.  Has anyone explored AMMC?  It is molten
aluminum mixed with ceramic whiskers.  It is said the the aluminum serves the same purose as
plastic matrix.  The resulting composite is much stronger than either of the base materials
separately and exhibits a trememdous strength to weight ratio.  Used in the Corvette as a

torque

tube and driveshaft?  Sounds interesting.

Lloyd

Sounds great. Is it lower density than aluminum? If so I will tell
my foundry about it. If it pours the same with  equal viscosity
as molten aluminum it might save some weight on these low stress
sand casting.

Paul Lamar

I found the article under "Exotic Materials Revisited" in a July 03 Kit Car magazine.  They list a
place in Concord CA  and a gentleman by the name of Russ "resident guru" (925-682-3340) who was
able to weld the material.  It is supposed to be able to be used in race car driveshafts, pistons,
and disc brake rotors, so it sounds like it is bullet proof.  Must be able to take extreme temps
as well.

Just an interesting material that GM is attempting to keep under wraps.  The author said he
eventually found info on the web and after several phone calls he found a readible available
welding process for AMMC.
Lloyd

 
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