New material that cannot be cut

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2249275-material-that-cannot-be-cut-would-make-the-ultimate-bike-lock

by offsky • 6 years ago

33 14 6 years ago

newscientist.com

aedanman• 6 years ago

Ultimate bike lock until you lose your own key

Giho• 6 years ago

Then you can cut your bike at least.

Aardwolf• 6 years ago

The article only mentioned various powered tools, can it withstand a bolt cutter?

pascalo• 6 years ago

Freeze and shatter? Car jack?

esperent• 6 years ago

Probably not considering that it looks like they have wrapped it in steel casing in the video. But that's probably OK - it's still useful as a component of a composite material.

kuroguro• 6 years ago

Most can be picked easily.

teddyh• 6 years ago

More comments here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23901635

fretn• 6 years ago

Can it be recycled or reused to make something else with it ?

Waterluvian• 6 years ago

I imagine it can be smelted down again like aluminum cans are.

fennecfoxen• 6 years ago

flag dupes!

BrendanD• 6 years ago

Echoing fretn's comment. This material sounds like a patently bad idea for general commerical use.

ktm5j• 6 years ago

I'm really confused, that angle grinder cut right into that plate.. looks plenty cuttable to me.

mdip2• 6 years ago

Material that cannot be cut ... The Ultimate Bike Lock

I remember the bike shop guy trying to sell the last bike lock that was cut resistant. It was a steel (I think) "U" lock (back right after they came out). I worked at CompUSA at the time. A co-worker had discovered the consequences of holding one of those "air duster" cans upside down, aimed at the steel pole keeping his above-average-build body in his chair (it snapped, he fell). Turns out a can of air and a good hammer and you can do away with one these locks at least as fast as any other lock (and some scrap?). IIRC, the generation that followed had very thick rubber insulation glued to the metal.

The bike thief cares about taking your bike/parts as quickly as possible and (probably) selling it somewhere. They don't care about breaking your super-lock. They'll cut through/break the thing it's locked to, and toss the whole thing onto a U-Haul as it circles the block[0]. Your wheels/gears/seat/parts are expensive, the frame can be frozen/shattered/cut quickly.

There have to be a lot of applications for a material like this (pretty much everywhere diamonds are used?).

But hey, if the aim was a better lock, here's my thinking: maximize for "it damages blades that try to cut it". Mimic a lock design that thieves hack (ideally, one that is difficult to cut but has no faster approach; encourage them to attach the expensive blades). Anything that increases the time during a theft might be enough for them to jump back in the van and drive off to the next set of bikes. And like all things security-related, use it in combination with other techniques that balance the strengths/weaknesses of each approach.

I really hope it's not ... the problem at hand is really "I want access to a bike with specific features when I want to use a bike with specific features"[1]. But alter the variables of "how nice of a bike I can ride when I want to ride it", "how difficult/easy it is to get a bike where I want a bike when I want to ride it" (it's not easy, now) and "provided I follow simple guidelines, you'll take the grief of bike theft mostly off of my plate/offer replacement on-demand insurance". There might be a market for "have the bike that's ideal for the trip" combining scheduling/delivery/insurance options.

[0] ... that same U-Haul that was briefly parked next to your car while you ran into Wal*Mart... the trip hereby known as "that really loud drive home after which you discovered your exhaust system had been hacked through/catalytic converter stolen".

[1] Like most, I chose to solve that by buying a bike. There wasn't another option that mixed "features", "convenience" and "price" (note, "theft risk" wasn't a thought until after I purchased it). Most people don't think beyond that and the creation of an alternative without "ownership" of some kind will likely be a non-starter for many people (...depending on price/features mix, for me ... I'll frequently use a service that requires having to schedule days in advance if I can ride a bike I can't afford for a very reasonable price).

New material that cannot be cut

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