Afarin Bellisario from Principal Transtrategy Inc. reports on Industry Week that the 21^st Century will be the age of glassy metals. These glassy metals are being referred to as “miracle metals.” Amorphous metal alloys (glassy metals) have several unusual properties such as: the highest strengths of any known metallic material; exceptional magnetism; wear/corrosion resistance; and a large ability to store elastic energy. The ease of manufacturing these metals is what is so extraordinary. They soften gradually when heated and don’t shrink during solidification like other metals. This allows for shaping and molding into very intricate designs. The article entitled, Miracle Metal: How Glassy Metals Will Define Manufacturing in the 21^st Century, also discusses the wide range of applications of glassy metals. A few of those applications are aerospace structures, gold clubs, and medical devices.

With the possibility of glassy metals transforming the manufacturing industry, reliability engineers and predictive maintenance professionals should pay extra attention to the applications of these metals. With glassy metals being used more frequently in manufacturing settings, people in the reliability and predictive maintenance industries should also know the properties of glassy metals, for they react differently than steel. This goes back to the importance of continuous learning, you will never know everything about your field, so you have to roll with the punches and learn and adapt to new technologies or methods with in the reliability and predictive maintenance fields.

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