A team of engineers from the University of California, San Diego, the University of South California and the California Institute for Technology have developed and tested a new type of steel that is able to withstand significant impact without deforming permanently.
This record-breaking material, called SAM2X5-630, is an amorphous steel alloy with a wide range of applications from drill bits, to body armor for soldiers, to meteor-resistant casings for satellites. The new material is affordable to manufacture, incredibly hard, but at the same time, not brittle. SAM2X5-630 is a subclass of steel alloys made of arrangements of atoms that deviate from steels classical crystal-like structure, where iron atoms occupy specific locations.
SAM2X5-630 has the highest recorded elastic limit for any steel alloy, according to the researchersessentially the highest threshold at which the material can withstand an impact without deforming permanently. The alloy can withstand pressure and stress of up to 12.5 giga-Pascals or about 125,000 atmospheres without undergoing permanent deformations. By comparison, stainless steel has an elastic limit of 0.2 giga-Pascals, while that of tungsten carbide (a high-strength ceramic used in military armor) is 4.5 giga-Pascals.