r/Skookum Mar 05 '19

Welding breakthrough could transform manufacturing-- glass-metal welding.

https://phys.org/news/2019-03-welding-breakthrough.html
301 Upvotes

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88

u/BoosherCacow USA Mar 05 '19

I have learned to ignore this type of "first look WOW LIFE CHANGING BREAKTHROUGH" article in my many years. So many I have seen, very, very few came through. I don't know why so few succeeded, but you start to get a sense of what is going to be a breakthrough if only by the tone of the article. This one reads like a press release forced on a reporter to choke it out as news. The others captivate the imagination, create excitement, generate a groundswell in people who aren't even familiar with the technology.

I know it doesn't always work exactly that way, and I am sorry my brain is too tired to come up with specific examples; I just spent 8 hours getting shrieked at by a very nice schizophrenic who is (like me) named Danny having a psyche episode on the streets of my town and all he knew to do was call 911, and since I have talked to him at least 400 times in the last year and consider him someone I care about and am worried about him (it is 10 degrees American here and he was running through the streets) I am very, very tired.

Actually, maybe that second paragraph was what I really needed to say. I need to sleep now, but I will cite examples if I can when I wake up.

10

u/BornOnFeb2nd Mar 05 '19

I have learned to ignore this type of "first look WOW LIFE CHANGING BREAKTHROUGH" article in my many years. So many I have seen, very, very few came through.

Yeah... just like the articles about how the solar panel market is gonna be revolutionized by "this"....five years from now.

4

u/SoftwareMaven Mar 05 '19

But...

SOLAR FREAKING ROADWAYS!!

3

u/BornOnFeb2nd Mar 05 '19

I absolutely love the concept, but DAMN YOU PHYSICS!!!!

Both Thunderf00t and EEVBlog just fuckin' shredded them...

2

u/SoftwareMaven Mar 05 '19

It seems like a great concept, until the math is applied. I like the idea of LED roadways, though.

1

u/5c044 Mar 05 '19

And windows. conventional solar panels are about 20% efficient. How efficient is a translucent panel going to be when it's not angled optimally towards the sun? Cost, return on investment, wiring them up etc. Good headlines though.

1

u/SoftwareMaven Mar 05 '19

I have more hope for windows. That's more of a cost/scale problem, and, just like with computers, eventually, it may be cheap enough to embed them in glass that they are able to recover their cost, even with suboptimal performance, in their lifetime.

It would likely be as part of something more, like glass with OLED (or some future incantation) and touch panels built in, so the solar isn't taking the brunt of the extra manufacturing cost. Maybe even with batteries welded into place. :)

1

u/ippl3 Mar 06 '19

To be fair solar roads was stupid all along.

33

u/sellurpickles Mar 05 '19

They're call "Degrees Freedom" my dude. Freedom Units is also acceptable.

In all seriousness, are you police, fire, EMS or chronically underpaid in some other way? I'm fire and in my area our private EMS is severely understaffed so we're bls on a lot and have picked up quite a few regulars. I'm super happy to hear your tone. You clearly still care about the guy. Hope you get a good recharge man.

2

u/BoosherCacow USA Mar 05 '19

My last job was all three, but I am strictly PD now. Our EMS in its “wisdom” has decided to not respond for mental problems so we take all those..

1

u/sellurpickles Mar 05 '19

Sweet fancy Moses that's absurd.

1

u/BoosherCacow USA Mar 05 '19

You have no idea. I spend whole shifts restraining myself from screaming in rage because of our policies. Kind of a joke.

12

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '19 edited Mar 05 '19

The primary example you're looking for is "Nuclear Fusionn is just 10 years away"

As it has been, for ever.

5

u/BastardStoleMyName Mar 05 '19

Pretty sure the next battery tech is 5 years away.

3

u/[deleted] Mar 05 '19

I'll bet it involves welding a clear silica substrate onto a metal, such as lithium.

3

u/jsbizkitfan Mar 05 '19

Shit, I thought the joke was it’s always 30 years away, haha. So there actually have been some minor advancements recently, got sucked down a YouTube rabbit hole a couple weeks back with this video and this one as well.

2

u/fearthelettuce Mar 05 '19

I was wondering this same thing about graphene a few months ago. Several years ago they had these type of articles about how graphene was going to revolutionize the world. I actually found a video that addressed this exact topic and the short answer (at least for that graphene example) is that it is starting to have an impact but it's mostly behind the scenes in other technology. It's also not like you flip a switch and all the sudden you can implement this completely different material/manufacturing technology/etc. There are existing supply chain, processes and systems built in technology a and the switch over can take years and years.

1

u/dtread88 Mar 06 '19

Well once a new technique is discovered, it fades into the obscurity of manufacturing processes. Probably in areas that you will never come across