Re: Transparent Aluminum

HERNING@uwplatt.edu
Mon, 01 Feb 1999 00:06:28 -0600 (CST)

> A remarkable idea occurred to me the other night while watching The =
> Learning Channel. What if rotate a hollow metal drum with a bottom on =
> it. Rotate it very rapidly such as >300000 rpm or so. The metal must a =
> rather high melting point. Next we pour molten aluminum (or some kind of =
> metal) into it, and let the centrifugal (or is it centripetal) force =
> smash it up to the walls of the drum, such as in a washing machine...
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Hi BillP

Didn't know if you are aware of this but this is one common technique that is
used to cast pipe, mainly large ones i think, They call it centrifugal casting
(imagine that :) ) We learned about it in a Manufacturing process class last
semester, had a pretty straight forward equation for calculating speed, I think
that 300000 rpm would be pretty hard to do, I don't know of anything offhand
that can go that fast. What king of g force are you looking for, most of the
normal centrifugally cast pipes spin at under 700 rpm, and they can get 50 or
more g's at the outer edge, if you are inerested i can lookup that equation for
you, don't have it right off hand anywhere. Also what are you going to do with
a see through aluminum cylinder?

Garrett Herning
herning@uwplatt.edu