[TheForge] amorphous steel

[Andy Vida]

GHS wrote:
> 
> Andy, who you kidding?
> Didn't they say $100 lb.?

	They said such materials can be as much as that, as I 
	recall. The article also said that the discoverers 
	anticipate devising processes where amprphous steels 
	would become cheap and plentiful.  This is the cue I
	took to mean that the material's properties are gained
	by its physical chemistry and not through elaborate
	processing.  If in fact this sort of steel were to become
	commonly available for, say, structural applications,
	there is no way that it would be able to be so in the
	hands of some "who gives a crap, my brain stays in the
	off position" worker if the material's handling requirements
	were so stringent.  How would a steel frame building be
	welded if the heat destroyed its properties?  Riveting?
	Bolting?  Perhaps, but that limits applications severely;
	far more so than I would have gathered from the article.
	I would also imagine that were the requirements that
	tight, it would have been mentioned by the author.  OTOH,
	reason doesn't always win out in such things. :)