New ‘liquid smart metal’ can go hard or floppy

Top boffins in Germany and China say they have developed a remarkable new type of metal material which can switch from being strong and hard to soft and squashy at the touch of a button.

“For the first time we have succeeded in producing a material which, while in service, can switch back and forth between a state of strong and brittle behavior and one of soft and malleable,” says the prof. “We are still at the fundamental research stage but our discovery may bring significant progress in the development of so-called smart materials.”

Johnson Matthey warns on rising metals costs

The company, which produces about one third of the catalytic converters used in vehicles worldwide, warned that the prices of rare earth metals were rising sharply.

Neil Carson, chief executive, remained bullish despite the negative market reaction, declaring that the company had seen a return “to strong growth”.

“The drivers that will provide superior earnings growth for the group in our existing markets remain strong,” Mr Carson said.
“We are increasing our investment in research and development in order to target new areas of future growth for our business.”

Metal stock

Wrought Products As a stockist of Molybdenum, Tantalum and other refractory materials we are also able to offer a very reactive and competitive wrought product service.

We stock a wide range of materials in plate, sheet, bar, rod & wire form and can supply a range of standard sizes with a very quick turnaround & Delivery.

If you are interested in buying any of our stock then why not contact us?

Bank Holiday

So Monday 30th May is another bank holiday and we are letting you know in advance that we will be shut.

If there is anything you need or would like information on then drop us a call or an email, before Monday or on the Tuesday 31st.

Enjoy your long weekend!

Gold prices: ‘Lower price beckons’ say RBS

The World Gold Council has published its “Gold Demand Trends” review. It shows that an astonishing 349 tonnes or 63% of world goldjewellery demand (557t) was accounted for by China and India in Q1 2011.

Nick Moore, a gold and silver analyst at RBS comments:  ”If we also add in bar and coin investment, then at a combined 526t these two countries took up 57% of world jewellery+investment. There was also an impressive 129t of official sector buying, dominated by 93t of purchases by the Bank of Mexico during February and March.

“But strip out official sector transactions and the underlying demand for gold in Q1 was an impressive 1,000t, compared with a quarterly average in 2010 of 993tpq and in 2009 of 905tpq.”

What the volcanic ash is doing to aeroplanes

Again its happened, the Icelandic volcano has erupted and caused another ash cloud, and airlines are getting quite freaked out by it. Not as much as last time though!

“They are made of sharp rock fragments that will easily erode plastic,metal and even glass pieces.”

“Volcanic ash contains particles, whose melting point is below engine internal temperature.

“In-flight, these particles will immediately melt if they go through an engine. Going through a turbine, the materials are rapidly cooled down, stick on the turbine vanes, and disturb the flow of high pressure combustion gases.”

“Ash deposits easily absorbs into water and can cause arcing, short circuits and intermittent failure of electronic components.”

As a knock on affect of this the manual outlined how, “Dense ash deposit can clog bleed system filters and may lead to total bleed loss, with associated loss of cabin pressurisation.”

SMF Contact us

Is there an enquiry that you would like to sort out?

Then why not use our contact us box on the contact page, all you have to do is leave your name, email address, and telephone number as well as what you would like to ask us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Here at SMF we like to have all the easy ways of contacting and using our services, and we think this box is simpler than sending us an email etc.

Contact Box

Inventors of titanium dental implants gets award

The designer of titanium dental implants have been noticed within the 2011 European Inventor Awards.

Awards in five categories were presented by the European Patent Office.

Per-Ingvar Branemark of Sweden won the lifetime achievement prize for his pioneering work with titanium dental implants.

We supply titanium and that fact that someone has used this particularmetal to produce implants for peoples mouths is a good idea

Metal thieves ’steal’ copper from rail line

Selfish thieves left many train passengers stranded on platforms across Essex for hours over the weekend.

One passenger from Chelmsford, was left stranded at Shenfield Station for more than three hours before he was able to get home.

He said: “There must have been over 100 of us there waiting to be told of any news.

“After about an hour of just standing in the foyer, someone said a coach had been organised, but it turned up an hour after that. Then we were told only people with children and pregnant women could get on first, and after it was full no one told us whether another one was coming or not.

“I eventually got home by train hours later, but many people couldn’t wait and took taxis.”

The not so clever metal thieves tried to steal expensive copper from Chelmsford’s rail lines between May 11 and 16, which left people unable stuck, stranded and unaware of how or when they would be home, what the thieves didn’t know was that it wasn’t expensivecopper after all and it was actually aluminium.

Niobium Supplys

We like to keep the blog followers up to date of where we are when searching for us on Google.

When searching for Niobium Suppliers Essex we come up on the front page 2nd from the top.

See it Here.

We like to keep ourselves up there so that you can find us easily and efficiently.

SMF

Metal week 2011

Sounds crazy but there is indeed a metal week!

This year it will be held in Moscow, and will be November 15th - 18th 2011.

The key events of the forum will become: Metal-Expo’2011, 17th International Industrial Exhibition; Metal Stroy Forum’2011, 3d International Exhibition for Steel Products and Structures for Construction, MetallurgMash’2011, International Exhibition for Equipment and Technologies for Steel Industry and Metal Working.

If you are interested in this then please see their website for more details.

Why we supply Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from its Latin name aurum) and atomic number 79.

It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history.

The metal occurs as nuggets or grains in rocks, underground “veins” and in alluvial deposits.

It is one of the coinage metals. Gold is dense, soft, shiny and the most malleable and ductile substance known.

Pure gold has a bright yellow color traditionally considered attractive.

Gold formed the basis for the gold standard used before the collapse of the Bretton Woods system in 1971.

The ISO currency code of gold bullion is XAU.

About Silver

Silver is a very ductile and malleable (slightly harder than gold) monovalent coinage metal with a brilliant white metallic luster that can take a high degree of polish.

It has the highest electrical conductivity of all metals, even higher thancopper, but its greater cost has prevented it from being widely used in place of copper for electrical purposes.