High strength metals

[Ben W Bell]

After a hiatus of too long I'm starting to write again for Traveller. High strength metals are mentioned occassionally in Traveller but I have trouble actually finding the names of any of them or what their properties are, all we really seem to have is vague descriptions like 'Superdense' and durasteel. Anyone know of any others? I am after a metal, or an alloy, that would have a very high tensile strength and isn't going to sheer or snap under high forces. Any comments or details on this would be appreciated.

 

[Zutroi]

The other important thing it needs is light weight. Aluminum and titanium alloys do this quite nicely, thank you. Without getting into horrible detail ("The bulkhead appears to be made of 7075 clad aluminum, with 6-2-4-2 titanium fasteners") you can create the right mental picture with classic phrases like "Titanalloy", "Cavorite", or the like.

Of course, you can always invoke the classic metals beloved of aerospace designers, "Unobtainium" and "Balonium".

 

[Hecateus]

Ahem: Handwaveium

Plastisteel and Ceramisteel are also common names. The highest tensile strength stuff known would be the nanobuckytube stuff. > Clicky <