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posted by martyb on Tuesday May 30 2017, @07:21AM   Printer-friendly

The conch shell is made of the same material as chalk, but unlike the crumbly rock, it's one of the toughest materials out there. If we can understand why it's so tough, we can mimic it to create nearly unbreakable materials that can be used for safety gear, and in construction, aerospace and other industries. Now, a team of researchers from MIT have developed a 3D printing technology that allowed them to duplicate the conch shell's structure and to test it more closely in the lab.

Conch shells have a complex, three-tiered structure with a zigzag matrix that makes them resistant to breakage. Small cracks don't typically lead to big ones, since they have to go through a maze to become bigger. However, to be able to replicate that quality, scientists need more data on how exactly cracks appear and spread.

That's why the team used the samples they printed to perform a series of drop tests. Since these samples are identical, unlike conch shells that have variations in quality, they gave the scientists a way to collect more accurate data. By the end of the testing period, the researchers were able to conclude that the shell's structure is 85 percent better at preventing cracks than the strongest base material and 70 percent better than a traditional fiber composite arrangement.

Source: ArsTechnica


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  • (Score: 2) by CoolHand on Tuesday May 30 2017, @11:40AM (8 children)

    by CoolHand (438) on Tuesday May 30 2017, @11:40AM (#517590) Journal
    I was wondering if this would be good for motorcycle armor... towards the end of the article, they mention helmets, but they need more testing to make sure the conch-like structure will be just as good for curved surfaces (even though a conch shell is a curved surface?). So, it sounds like it may indeed be good for armor, helmets, etc.. Maybe they will solve the NFL's concussion issue...
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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by canopic jug on Tuesday May 30 2017, @12:47PM (7 children)

    by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday May 30 2017, @12:47PM (#517602) Journal

    Maybe they will solve the NFL's concussion issue...

    Solving that would mean removing the helmets completely, or going back to the leather caps, and ditching most of the body armor. The concussions happen because of their brains getting rattled, which is caused by getting hit hard, which happens only because the helmets protect the outside of the head and there are no pain sensors inside the brain to cause the players to complain and change the rules. The body armor protects the rest of the body, also allowing it to get hit and act like a lever with the head at the far end of that lever. Some tackles will generate over 30 G [popularmechanics.com] inside the skull very briefly. With repetition, that's just shredding the brain fiber from fiber. Over a 12 week season, the average is 652 impacts [umich.edu], the equivalent of smashing at sprinting speeds head first into a brick wall. If that were done the normal way, the outside would be pulped long early on. The padding and helmets prevent external damage and, again, the brain itself has no pain sensors.

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    • (Score: 3, Touché) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 30 2017, @02:19PM (4 children)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday May 30 2017, @02:19PM (#517644) Journal

      Another reason to play rugby instead. Better cardio, and now with less brain damage! Also, much, much more beer. It's a no-brainer.

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      • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:31PM (1 child)

        by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:31PM (#517780)

        Amateur rugby, then. Because now that there's lots of money in the sport, the pros spend so much time juicing and becoming muscle monsters, that concussions and other injuries are becoming quite severe.

        • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 30 2017, @06:55PM

          by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday May 30 2017, @06:55PM (#517818) Journal

          Amateur rugby is my lens. I played it in college and grad school and the tackling style was much different than that used in American football. That's what I was thinking of.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:38PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 30 2017, @05:38PM (#517788)

        I thought the major difference between rugby and American football, is that rugby players like the pain.

        • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday May 30 2017, @06:58PM

          by Phoenix666 (552) on Tuesday May 30 2017, @06:58PM (#517819) Journal

          That, too. But you never stop running, like in soccer, and the tackling style is different and less designed for blunt force trauma the way American football is. After the game there is obligatory beer. Lots and lots of beer. And songs. Horrible, horrible songs. Like filk-singing, but with less harmony and far more graphic.

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    • (Score: 2) by Arik on Tuesday May 30 2017, @04:16PM

      by Arik (4543) on Tuesday May 30 2017, @04:16PM (#517720) Journal
      I haven't investigated that issue at all but I am fairly certain you are right. I have investigated the similar situation in Boxing. Bare knuckle boxing was outlawed and the gloves were forced on them, supposedly for their own good, of course. The first gloves were intended to be used when sparring with somewhat reduced contact, and they worked fine there, but then people got the idea that it would be safer to fight with them on too. So the real early gloves were 2oz, leather and a little layer of lambs wool or horsehair for padding. This does reduce the incidence of minor bleeding wounds, torn knuckles in particular. But it's a mistake to think that actually makes it safer. It protects your hand and tends to make you more confident to throw punches with all your force, so it might even have increased the serious injuries. But it succeeded in terms of being widely seen as a good move, making a more civilized sport, so it stuck, until eventually it became the only legal way to do it.

      And over time the gloves have gotten heavier. Pros are using 10oz gloves these days I think? Much more padding than the old 2oz glove, so in addition to protecting the hand it's really adding dramatic amounts of weight to the hand as well. No more cut knuckles, but lots of people getting brain damage.

      We should have stopped at bare knuckles, if you ask me.
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    • (Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Tuesday May 30 2017, @04:27PM

      by art guerrilla (3082) on Tuesday May 30 2017, @04:27PM (#517728)

      i think the nfl actually sees the long-term handwriting on the wall, is why they are doing the experimental flag football league...
      just sayin'...