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Can molten metals in space get shaped like glass on Earth? (self.askscience)

submitted 1 week ago by j4k3 to c/askscience

20 comments fedilink hide all child comments

What might prevent metal "blowing" and other forms of shaping from working if gravity was not a factor? Let's handwave-ignore the extremes of temperature as it relates to techniques and the present primitive space habitats and craft.

Is it possible to suspend a pool of molten metal, with a tube inside, spin while adding a gas to shape a container, and form more complex shapes through additional heat cycles in a repeatable process?

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[–] superterran 1 points 1 week ago (3 children)

What if the substance was only one part iron?

[–] Orbituary 13 points 1 week ago

That would no longer be iron, then. It would be an alloy. Steel is the most common example of an iron alloy and it exhibits different properties based on the ratio of carbon and other elements.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Ditto goes for most alloys. Glass-like properties aren't typical, otherwise metal blowing would be a thing.

There might be alloys that can do this, but not the usual ones. Some of the low-melting ones can be gooey-seeming, off the top of my head.

[–] Death_Equity 3 points 1 week ago

An alloy would have to have the working properties needed, but all "metals" have the same problem of viscosity and plasticity not overlapping.