Scientists say that a new form of 3-D printed material made by combining commonly used plastics with carbon nanotubes is tougher and lighter than 'similar forms of aluminium', adding that it could lead to the development of safer, lighter and more durable structures for use in the aerospace, automotive, renewables and marine industries. In a new paper published in the journal Materials & Design, a team led by University of Glasgow engineers describe how they have developed a new plate-lattice cellular 'metamaterial' capable of "impressive resistance to impacts". Metamaterials are a class of artificially created cellular solids, designed and engineered to 'manifest properties' that do not occur in the natural world. One form of metamaterials, known as plate-lattices, are cubic structures made from intersecting layers of plates that exhibit 'unusually high stiffness and strength', despite featuring a significant amount of space between the plates. Those spaces, which are a property engineers call porosity, also make plate-lattices 'unusually lightweight'.
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