Scientific Paper
New and Improved Project
Ryan Maloney
2906 Aspen Drive
Durango, CO
81301
970-759-1174
10/31/11
Outlaw
Racing
3901 48th. Ave N
St. Petersburg,FL 33714
Dear Outlaw Racing,
I hope that you are doing well. My name is Ryan Maloney and I am a junior here at Animas High school in Durango, CO. In our chemistry class we are doing a project called “New and Improved.” What we are supposed to do is improve a consumer product that is a part of our life. We do this by changing the elements, compounds or molecules that compose that product.
When I was coming up with an idea of what to do I thought of one of my favorite hobbies. One of those is dirt biking. One of the main flaws that my friends and I run into dirt biking, whether it be in the mountains or anywhere else, is the clutch and brake lever snapping in two on a crash where the lever hits the ground, just right, breaking it. I have run into several instances where the front break is broken at the base too short, that you can barely fit one finger on it to use. Another time is when the clutch gets damaged enough that you can barely shift and almost don’t get back to base without having to pop it into neutral and push it.
I know that you want to keep the parts on the bike as light as they can be, so you don’t want a too strong of metal that is heavier than it needs to be. That shouldn’t mean that you should have a product that still breaks on a bad crash. What I propose to you is to start developing a clutch and brake levers out of a product called “metallic glass.”
Metallic glass is a high strength, low density material that has a combination of different metals such as: zirconium, titanium, copper, nickel and platinum. The glass part of it is a micro alloy made of palladium. The combination of these metals allows you to have an alloy that is strong enough that less metal is needed. This material holds about 90 atomic percent of aluminum and is ultrasonically bonded of Zr55Cu30Ni5Al10 to the metallic glass. The material has the ability to be bonded without external heat.
This material would keep the parts light and twice as tough and elastic as titanium. If you have a crash and it affects the levers, it would bend more instead of snapping, if it even bends at all. All you have to do then is bend it back into the original shape. With all things there are disadvantages though. With this metal being a crystalline metal structures in the glass component, when it is bent too far past a point, it can crack causing cracks to spread through the material. The reason for this is from the glass unstructured structure that is not able to stop the crack spread. Don’t worry though. The Lawrence Berkeley/California Tech team has developed the metallic glass to be fabricated to stop the spread of cracks. A layer of thin rubber could even be manufactured over the levers to help keep the lever intact if worse comes to worse.
This product would keep the parts light, but still be a strong material to use. Buyers would be much happier having a product that has the ability to withstand more and last longer. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Ryan
Maloney
2906 Aspen Drive
Durango, CO
81301
970-759-1174
10/31/11
Outlaw
Racing
3901 48th. Ave N
St. Petersburg,FL 33714
Dear Outlaw Racing,
I hope that you are doing well. My name is Ryan Maloney and I am a junior here at Animas High school in Durango, CO. In our chemistry class we are doing a project called “New and Improved.” What we are supposed to do is improve a consumer product that is a part of our life. We do this by changing the elements, compounds or molecules that compose that product.
When I was coming up with an idea of what to do I thought of one of my favorite hobbies. One of those is dirt biking. One of the main flaws that my friends and I run into dirt biking, whether it be in the mountains or anywhere else, is the clutch and brake lever snapping in two on a crash where the lever hits the ground, just right, breaking it. I have run into several instances where the front break is broken at the base too short, that you can barely fit one finger on it to use. Another time is when the clutch gets damaged enough that you can barely shift and almost don’t get back to base without having to pop it into neutral and push it.
I know that you want to keep the parts on the bike as light as they can be, so you don’t want a too strong of metal that is heavier than it needs to be. That shouldn’t mean that you should have a product that still breaks on a bad crash. What I propose to you is to start developing a clutch and brake levers out of a product called “metallic glass.”
Metallic glass is a high strength, low density material that has a combination of different metals such as: zirconium, titanium, copper, nickel and platinum. The glass part of it is a micro alloy made of palladium. The combination of these metals allows you to have an alloy that is strong enough that less metal is needed. This material holds about 90 atomic percent of aluminum and is ultrasonically bonded of Zr55Cu30Ni5Al10 to the metallic glass. The material has the ability to be bonded without external heat.
This material would keep the parts light and twice as tough and elastic as titanium. If you have a crash and it affects the levers, it would bend more instead of snapping, if it even bends at all. All you have to do then is bend it back into the original shape. With all things there are disadvantages though. With this metal being a crystalline metal structures in the glass component, when it is bent too far past a point, it can crack causing cracks to spread through the material. The reason for this is from the glass unstructured structure that is not able to stop the crack spread. Don’t worry though. The Lawrence Berkeley/California Tech team has developed the metallic glass to be fabricated to stop the spread of cracks. A layer of thin rubber could even be manufactured over the levers to help keep the lever intact if worse comes to worse.
This product would keep the parts light, but still be a strong material to use. Buyers would be much happier having a product that has the ability to withstand more and last longer. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Ryan
Maloney
Response
November 28, 2011
Ryan,
Thank you for sending us your ideas regarding construction of brake and clutch levers out of metallic glass.
In principal, the conceppt of a stronger material that is also more likely to bend than break is an excellent one. There has always been a strong interest in keeping levers from becoming unusable when riding or racing. There have been several innovations on that front in the industry, including spring loaded levers that can bend backwards at the pivot point and lever perches that can rotate upon impact.
Unfortunately, the off-road market tends to be highly commoditized, i.e. it is driven by price and convenience. The use of highly exotic materials creates high levels of retail pricing, and as such, tends to make it prohibitive to use such materials in this industry. Fairly common materials such as titanium, carbon fiber and magnesium are still considered quite exotic and carry the highest elvels of retail pricing for their item types.
Still, there is always a consideration that has to be made for building a better mousetrap. Its one of the foundations of our capitalistic economy, and always a source of innovation. As such, we do have an interest in developing new and exciting product ideas. My main convern with metallic glass is the relative scarcity of manufacturers using this product for these types of applications, and that we may be on our own to establish production processes for forming components out of this material. This drives up research and development costs, as well as manufacturing overhead.
So, having said all of that, it is our plan to look into using this material a bit more, and to see if it is even remotely cost-effective to do so. With any luck, it will be and then we can start to delve into your idea a bit more.
Thank you for submitting your idea to us. We have always had a policy of geting as much consumer-level input on new products as possible, and it is really great to see it coming from the high-school level.
Send me an email wih your shirt and hat sizes, and I will make sure we send you some swag for your efforts.
Thank you,
David Cameron
National Sales Manager
PitPosse Motorsports and Outlaw Racing Products
3901 48th Avenue North
Saint Pertersburg, Florida 33714 USA
727-525-7100 x306
727-520-1558 fax
[email protected]
Ryan,
Thank you for sending us your ideas regarding construction of brake and clutch levers out of metallic glass.
In principal, the conceppt of a stronger material that is also more likely to bend than break is an excellent one. There has always been a strong interest in keeping levers from becoming unusable when riding or racing. There have been several innovations on that front in the industry, including spring loaded levers that can bend backwards at the pivot point and lever perches that can rotate upon impact.
Unfortunately, the off-road market tends to be highly commoditized, i.e. it is driven by price and convenience. The use of highly exotic materials creates high levels of retail pricing, and as such, tends to make it prohibitive to use such materials in this industry. Fairly common materials such as titanium, carbon fiber and magnesium are still considered quite exotic and carry the highest elvels of retail pricing for their item types.
Still, there is always a consideration that has to be made for building a better mousetrap. Its one of the foundations of our capitalistic economy, and always a source of innovation. As such, we do have an interest in developing new and exciting product ideas. My main convern with metallic glass is the relative scarcity of manufacturers using this product for these types of applications, and that we may be on our own to establish production processes for forming components out of this material. This drives up research and development costs, as well as manufacturing overhead.
So, having said all of that, it is our plan to look into using this material a bit more, and to see if it is even remotely cost-effective to do so. With any luck, it will be and then we can start to delve into your idea a bit more.
Thank you for submitting your idea to us. We have always had a policy of geting as much consumer-level input on new products as possible, and it is really great to see it coming from the high-school level.
Send me an email wih your shirt and hat sizes, and I will make sure we send you some swag for your efforts.
Thank you,
David Cameron
National Sales Manager
PitPosse Motorsports and Outlaw Racing Products
3901 48th Avenue North
Saint Pertersburg, Florida 33714 USA
727-525-7100 x306
727-520-1558 fax
[email protected]
Description of Project
In this project we were to improve a consumer product that is a part of our life. We do so by changing the elements, compounds or molecules that compose that product.
When I first heard about this project, I had no idea what I should do. I couldn't think of anything that interrested me that I would want to work on to be improved. After thinking and talking about it more I started moving towards a hobby that I enjoy. Dirt biking is a main one for me. From there I started thinking of clutch levers, how sometimes when I am riding with friends, sometimes if you dump your bike onto a hard surface the lever breaks in half. I chose to do metallic glass for an improved product.
I would say that the strengths of my work would be my organization. I had my letter organized and had all the parts of the letter due when they were supposed to be.
If I were to improve my letter, if I had more time, I would find the amount of each element that is in metallic glass. I would do more research on how metallic glass might be able to be improved even further. What I did was mainly found a new material that was already invented that clutch levers could be made out of. I should have instead gone into it more with chemical elements.
Through this project I learned a lot about metallic glass. Before this project I didn't know and had never heard anything about metallic glass before. It is a high strenght low density material that is combined of different metals, such as: zirconium, titanium, copper, nickel and platinum. With the combintion of these metals you develop an alloy that is strong enough, to where less metal is needed, resulting into a lighter piece of metal.
When I first heard about this project, I had no idea what I should do. I couldn't think of anything that interrested me that I would want to work on to be improved. After thinking and talking about it more I started moving towards a hobby that I enjoy. Dirt biking is a main one for me. From there I started thinking of clutch levers, how sometimes when I am riding with friends, sometimes if you dump your bike onto a hard surface the lever breaks in half. I chose to do metallic glass for an improved product.
I would say that the strengths of my work would be my organization. I had my letter organized and had all the parts of the letter due when they were supposed to be.
If I were to improve my letter, if I had more time, I would find the amount of each element that is in metallic glass. I would do more research on how metallic glass might be able to be improved even further. What I did was mainly found a new material that was already invented that clutch levers could be made out of. I should have instead gone into it more with chemical elements.
Through this project I learned a lot about metallic glass. Before this project I didn't know and had never heard anything about metallic glass before. It is a high strenght low density material that is combined of different metals, such as: zirconium, titanium, copper, nickel and platinum. With the combintion of these metals you develop an alloy that is strong enough, to where less metal is needed, resulting into a lighter piece of metal.
Lab
Purpose: To determine the formula of a hydrate using your understanding of chemial formulas, molse ratios and molar masses.
Background Information: Inorganic salts that have water molecules bonded to them in a compound are called hydrates. These hydrates have a specific ratio of the number of water molecules to the number of inorganic salt molecules.
Materials:
Background Information: Inorganic salts that have water molecules bonded to them in a compound are called hydrates. These hydrates have a specific ratio of the number of water molecules to the number of inorganic salt molecules.
Materials:
-Salt x nH2O
- Funnel -Crucible Tongs -Distilled Water -Crucible - Wire Gauze -Stirring Rod -Hot Plate -Clay Triangle |
-Insulated Gloves
-Rubber Policeman - Bunsen Burner -Ring Clamp -Filter Paper -250 ml or 400 ml Beaker -Watch Glasses -Electronic Balance |
Safety:
-Hydrate is toxic by ingestion.
-Use caution when dealing with hot plate or open flame.
Procedure:
1) Use an electric scale to find the mass of the substance.
2) Turn hot plate on low and place the empty crucible onto the plate for two to three minutes to remove any water that may be on it from the atmosphere or anything else.
3) Pour substance into crucible, on the hot plate.
4) Keep the heat of the hot plate on low to avoid the salt from "popping" which will happen if it has too much heat. You can gradually turn the heat up as needed.
5) Leave the salt on hot plate untill all of the water mollecules are gone. (YOu will be able to tell by seeing the difference in color and texture. The salt will turn more into a powder instead of its original crystal structure and will turn white instead of its original blue structure.) You can use the rubber policeman to stir the salt in the crucible to help.
6) Use the electric scale to find the new mass of the salt.
7) Stubtract the new mass of the salt by your original mass to find the amount of water molecules that were in the salt.
Results:
Original Mass (of salt) = 3.015 grams
Mass w/out water particles = 2.365 grams
3.015g - 2.365g = .65g
.65g were water molecules in the substance.
As we watched the salt in the crucible on the hot plate, you could see the salt change color. This was a chemical and physical change. The salt changed from a crystal shape structure into more of a powder.
Percent Error = (Experimental Vallue - Theoretical Value) X 100
Theoretical Value
(.65- 31.1%) X 100 = -97.9%
31.1%
Conclusion:
THe purpose was to determine the formula of a hydrate using your understanding of chemical formulas, mole ratios and molar masses. As said before this was a physical and chemical change, because of the color change and knowing it lost its water molecules and the change in its structure from a crystal shape to more of a powder.
Error:
-Some of the salt may have popped out of the crucible while it was on the hot plate.
-Hydrate is toxic by ingestion.
-Use caution when dealing with hot plate or open flame.
Procedure:
1) Use an electric scale to find the mass of the substance.
2) Turn hot plate on low and place the empty crucible onto the plate for two to three minutes to remove any water that may be on it from the atmosphere or anything else.
3) Pour substance into crucible, on the hot plate.
4) Keep the heat of the hot plate on low to avoid the salt from "popping" which will happen if it has too much heat. You can gradually turn the heat up as needed.
5) Leave the salt on hot plate untill all of the water mollecules are gone. (YOu will be able to tell by seeing the difference in color and texture. The salt will turn more into a powder instead of its original crystal structure and will turn white instead of its original blue structure.) You can use the rubber policeman to stir the salt in the crucible to help.
6) Use the electric scale to find the new mass of the salt.
7) Stubtract the new mass of the salt by your original mass to find the amount of water molecules that were in the salt.
Results:
Original Mass (of salt) = 3.015 grams
Mass w/out water particles = 2.365 grams
3.015g - 2.365g = .65g
.65g were water molecules in the substance.
As we watched the salt in the crucible on the hot plate, you could see the salt change color. This was a chemical and physical change. The salt changed from a crystal shape structure into more of a powder.
Percent Error = (Experimental Vallue - Theoretical Value) X 100
Theoretical Value
(.65- 31.1%) X 100 = -97.9%
31.1%
Conclusion:
THe purpose was to determine the formula of a hydrate using your understanding of chemical formulas, mole ratios and molar masses. As said before this was a physical and chemical change, because of the color change and knowing it lost its water molecules and the change in its structure from a crystal shape to more of a powder.
Error:
-Some of the salt may have popped out of the crucible while it was on the hot plate.