I found beryllium nickel alloy, made by Brush Wellman. It's about 2% beryllium and 97% nickel, with a touch of titanium. It has an ultimate tensile strength of 300,000 psi, and 245,000 psi yield strength! This is 375% stronger than the best high tensile steel. I found 99.9% pure beryllium for sale at $20 per gram. The tensile strength of 98.5% beryllium is about 58,000 psi, so it seems to do a lot better when mixed with other metals.
I feel more confident with a single piece toe cap, than one with multiple layers of shapes, assuming both are the same material and mass. A multi layer cap is only as strong as the strongest layer, the rest will collapse. A standard toe cap shape.. a half egg shape on its side, distributes impact weight mainly to the base, and not to the cap itself. The standard toe cap shape is only vulnerable at the arch where the toes go in, but this arch can be reinforced with an I-beam/T-beam around it. The base and the cap should be one piece to keep the cap from moving off the base. A hexagon or triangle has more points.. impact weight is diverted to several directions before reaching the base, causing undue stress to the cap rather that putting the weight where it wants to go (into the ground under the toes). I'm not sure if this makes sense. robert On February 23, 2006 01:49 am, Jason Gurtz wrote: > On 2/22/2006 01:18, Robert Connolly wrote: > > Hello. I'm wondering if any of you can suggest a metal, or composite, for > > the ultimate mining/masonry work boot... > > Two that come to mind are Magnesium and Beryllium. One bad thing about > Mg is that it's prone to oxidation so it would need some kind of surface > treatment to prevent that. It's pretty expensive, extremely difficult > to weld, difficult to machine, but is very strong and also ductile. The > web says it's often alloyed with Aluminum. > > Beryllium is an amazing substance. Be is element 4 and thus is extremely > light weight per volume. It is stronger and more ductile then steel. > It is highly resistant to oxidation and has a very high melting point. > Not too many people have enough money to buy it, yet alone have the > capability to work it. Now the bad. It is rather toxic and difficult > to find. People will be suspicious if you ask about getting quantities > of it. Much of it is used in nuclear weapons and has become > radioactive. You can read more about it on the web. Some things you > might not find that I've learned from a friend who's worked at certain > government agencies that deal with it. It must be machined with diamond > bits because it is abrasive. It also has a tendency to tear rather than > cut cleanly on machining equipment so it is a slow, arduous and > expensive process for a skilled person to make a precision anything out > of it. > > I think reality says your problem is better solved by re-engineering the > boot. Something like this crude drawing (looking head on at the toes): > > > ( ) <--- Steel or aircraft Al tubing (maybe 20mm diameter or so) > // \\ > //0OOOo\\ > ^ > \ > Toes > > Basically, form some kind of tubular cage around the forefoot. The idea > also is to make the shape so that it's more likely that the heavy object > ends up dealing a glancing, rather than a crushing blow. Maybe you > could start with a crampon frame and weld strong tubing to it. > > You could also experiment with making molded laminations out of epoxy > and carbon or carbon/kevlar composite cloth. Check out > <http://www.fiberglasssupply.com> I've had good luck with MAS Resin > which you can get from defender marine supply > > ~Jason > > -- -- http://linuxfromscratch.org/mailman/listinfo/lfs-chat FAQ: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/faq/ Unsubscribe: See the above information page
