Hey, I am looking for a different type of super hard finish that I can use on this turbine we designed.
It needs to be completely non toxic and super strong. I was thinking of some kind of natural ceramic or silica polymer finish, similar to how sea shells or how mother of pearl is created. nano carbon tube finish?
We want this turbine to be able to be completely recyclable, cradle to cradle. It is already made from aircraft aluminum, we are stumped on the finish.
Does anyone have any suggestions or a direction I could look?
thanks,
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It needs to be completely non toxic and super strong. I was thinking of some kind of natural ceramic or silica polymer finish, similar to how sea shells or how mother of pearl is created. nano carbon tube finish?
We want this turbine to be able to be completely recyclable, cradle to cradle. It is already made from aircraft aluminum, we are stumped on the finish.
Does anyone have any suggestions or a direction I could look?
thanks,
arrow
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San Diego
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Re: Need Nano finish for Double Helix Wind Turbine
Thu, July 26, 2007 - 9:34 AMWhat is the turbine for, makes a difference in how one finishes it. -
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Re: Need Nano finish for Double Helix Wind Turbine
Thu, July 26, 2007 - 10:22 AMIt is used for generating electricity. It will be installed in extremely harsh conditions and will need to keep a good finish for about 25 - 30 years. -
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Re: Need Nano finish for Double Helix Wind Turbine
Thu, July 26, 2007 - 5:29 PMtry oxidizing it (AKA anodized); done correctly it will be ruby hard, but no matter what you do wind born grit will destroy the surface given enough time.
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Re: Need Nano finish for Double Helix Wind Turbine
Thu, July 26, 2007 - 5:37 PManodizing aluminum makes sense for a lot of reasons.
the most obvious to me is that anodization is a process similar to what aluminum does to itself without protection.
it grows a chemically less active skin that is thick enough to protect the aluminum underneath.
in fact, anodized aluminum if scratched deeply enough to penetrate the anodization, will grow a new layer of anodization in the groove.
if you "pre" anodize aluminum, you gain the opportunity to standardize the protection from the elements, and also to add color or other finish.
its also cheap, extremely durable, and satisfies many industry standards.
It is the preferred finish for rolled aluminum roofing material. (hard to find a more harsh application than that)
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Re: Need Nano finish for Double Helix Wind Turbine
Fri, July 27, 2007 - 6:05 PMWe are actually using the anodizing method now along with powder coating. So we are doing a clear anodizing of the aluminum and then we are powder coating. This has proven to be an extremely hard surface.
The down side to all of this is that the process and chemicals of anodizing and powder coating is extremely toxic. In addition as the turbine wears over the years it is dropping chemical particles into the environment. which leads me back to my original question. We need a finish that is completely non toxic and extremely resistant that will not poison the environment during its creation, during use and as it gets recycled.
Does anyone know if there is a nanotech finish that uses biomimicry as a basis for application and performance? Does anyone know what I am talking about? Does anyone here know how and why sea shells are able to create incredibly hard surfaces from an electrical chemical relationship with the sea water it's self?
I am looking for solutions. Any ideas other than the obvious?
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Re: Need Nano finish for Double Helix Wind Turbine
Fri, July 27, 2007 - 6:12 PMI forgot to add this. You can check out the vid of the turbine here youtube.com/watch
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Re: Need Nano finish for Double Helix Wind Turbine
Sat, July 28, 2007 - 4:17 PMSkip the powder coat - that is where all your uncontrolled release of toxic compounds into the enviroment will come from. The chemicals you use in the factor are containable so are of limited harm.
Another surface treatment is mircocrystalline diamond - plasma deposited, usually onto nickel. I have no idea how well that would work on such a large scale. -
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Re: Need Nano finish for Double Helix Wind Turbine
Sat, July 28, 2007 - 7:37 PMmircocrystalline diamond - plasma deposited, that's sounds really exotic. Interesting. Do you know where I can find more info on that? One issue though is that consumers are going to want different colors for their turbine. -
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Re: Need Nano finish for Double Helix Wind Turbine
Sun, July 29, 2007 - 1:22 PMNot of hand, just do a search on synthetic diamonds. The idea is that one uses the nickel as a template/active surface for the diamonds to form, then one discharges electricity through methane gas - the electricity knocks a proton off the methane which then binds to the nickel, latter another proton gets knocked off and the resulting carbon anion reacts with another methane and so on until one gets diamonds on the surface. This is the same process that is used to make diamond whetstones. I don't think it has ever been tried on the scale that we are talking about.
As for color, the surface can be painted or the surface can be plated with an anodized metal (depending on thickness and the metals used, a wide variety of colors are available) which would then be coated with a thin film of nickel then coated in diamonds.
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Re: Need Nano finish for Double Helix Wind Turbine
Fri, July 27, 2007 - 6:13 PMI forgot to add this. You can check out the vid of the turbine here youtube.com/watch
