Talk:Nonburnite

Description

I learned a little more about this material from Googling around. Here is one source [1] which has the following abstract:

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT

XCOR has conducted extensive research and development, and material characterization analysis of a nonflammable, high-strength, lightweight thermoplastic fluoropolymer composite material, trademarked NonburniteTM, which is suitable for making reusable, reliable, low cost cryogenic tanks and structures for space flight service.

XCOR’s composite material is lighter than metal, and unlike graphite/epoxy, nonflammable. The material is immune to microcracking, has a low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), and is capable of withstanding hundreds of cryogenic temperature cycles. Additionally, it is durable, repairable, and can withstand extreme hot and cold temperatures. The fluoropolymer composite maintains strength and flexibility at extreme temperatures (-260 to plus 280 degrees C/-436 to plus 536 degrees F).Low CTE also allows this composite to be built into a vehicle’s primary structure. Used as the internal skin in a sandwich structure (Nonburnite, foam, and carbon/epoxy) the composite skin-foam-skin material provides both thermal insulation and structure.

These features, along with the high strength-to-weight ratio, make it an enabling technology for building lighter, highly reusable, and more robust propellant tanks, thus reducing need for maintenance between flights. Further, XCOR believes significant commercialization opportunities exist for the material after its manufacturing processes have matured.

NASA is apparently funding some of the research into this material, per the December 2010 source I linked to above. — Cheers. N2e (talk) 16:15, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

(the following is a copy of a discussion from Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Chemicals, dates as shown below:)

A new nonflammable, high-strength, lightweight thermoplastic fluoropolymer

Hi. I work a bit in WikiProject Spaceflight and, in the process of adding and linking information about a new rocket engine today, I ran into a relatively new—and seemingly interesting—polymer material called nonburnite. I found only the one Wikipedia article that briefly mentioned it, so I added a redir page for Nonburnite that would take the reader to that page. I also did a bit of googling and found an abstract summarizing the material thusly: "a nonflammable, high-strength, lightweight thermoplastic fluoropolymer composite material, trademarked NonburniteTM, which is suitable for making reusable, reliable, low cost cryogenic tanks and structures for space flight service." I have added that particular quote, plus the rest of the abstract, to the nonburnite redir Talk page. It appears that NASA is funding some of this research, so have added the redir page to the spaceflight wikiproject. Perhaps it is of interest to your wikiproject as well.

So why did I write this? I have no idea what makes a new material become of interest to the materials science folks, or when it would be sufficiently notable for its own article, but did think I should draw this to someone's attention. I could not find a WikiProject Materials Science project, so thought I would just mention it here. It seems a bit of an interesting and capable chemical polymer compound to me. Cheers. —N2e (talk) 16:31, 25 March 2011 (UTC)

Indeed, we have no materials science project and this topic is covered here. We should wait when this material is properly described, particularly its chemical composition and structure, to see what it actually is - new composite by composition or by physical form (foam or alike), or etc. Materialscientist (talk) 06:17, 26 March 2011 (UTC)

Thanks very much for the comment. If I ever happen to note information added to a space-related article that better describes the material, I'll remember where I wrote this and get over here to point it out to the materials science/chemicals folk. Cheers. N2e (talk) 04:00, 30 March 2011 (UTC)