Exotic Edge ACRYLITE® GP sheet has just a slight hint of color when viewed from the face. When you view the sheet edge, it suddenly BURSTS into one of seven startling colors. These edge colors give displays, fixtures, shelving and routed lettering a distinctive look.
When working with the material, it behaves as other acrylic sheet, making it and easy addition to your collection of materials.
Redwood (or Sequoia) are the giant trees you've seen (or heard about) in California.
Because the supply of Redwood is now highly restricted, the prices are high for this softwood. The wood stands up very well outside, as long as it doesn't come in contact with the ground. The wood is typically used for exterior joinery, fences, decking, or shingles.
Picture © National Geographic
This colorful cousin of the Mulberries is known as Bloodwood. There are not many woods as uniform in color, smoothness and texture. This is likely because the trees grow tall and straight. The wood is hard to find in wide planks, but is surprisingly easy to work with.
Because of the color of the wood, it is used mainly for ornamental work. But as with most colored woods, it will fade with time.
Since a certain someone with a similar name has been in the news lately, we figured it would be fitting for this weeks material matters to be Tiger Wood.
In the UK, this wood is known as Zebra Wood, but in North America, we call it Tiger Wood. The wood is similar in characteristics to most tropical hardwoods. It can be very unpredictable though, as it often has tight grain. The grain can also interlock, making shaping the wood very difficult. It is a very dense, hard wood, and will cause your tools to become dull quickly.
Tiger wood is used mainly for flooring, but also for fine furniture, cabinets, decoration, and boat building.
Kraftplex is a versatile wooded sheeting. The material consists of 100 % cellulose but combines the characteristics of metal, composite materials, and plastics. It is stable, flexible and durably shapable like metal sheets.
The high-quality fibers come from sustainably cultivated stocks of softwood. The production process of kraftplex is unique and uses nothing but water, pressure and heat; no chemical additives, bleaches or binding agents are needed. The material is thus manufactured in a very environmentally sound way and is completely biodegradable.
Kraftplex is still a relatively new material and seems to only be readily only available in Europe.For more information visit the official site.
This past summer, scientists from Oxford University led an international team in using the FLASH laser synchrotron in Hamburg, Germany to create a new state of matter, transparent aluminum. Using a short pulse from the FLASH laser, they removed a core electron from each aluminium atom, but did not destroy or disrupt the metal’s crystalline structure. What resulted was an aluminum that was almost invisible to ultraviolet radiation. Scientists involved in the discovery suggest that this will aid in further research concerning planetary science and nuclear fusion. The effect on the aluminum lasted for 40 femtoseconds.
A concept of transparent aluminum was seen in Star Trek IV (scene pictured).
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