A new material to cut weight of ships by 30 percent – Bioship 1

Category: Water traffic

A new material is tested to cut the weight of ships by 30 percent. For an average sized freight vessel
with a capacity of 7000 m? this corresponds to a weight reduction of more than 1000 tons.
Researchers from Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology in Chemnitz,
Germany, have experimented with an aluminum powder that foams when heated up. The new
material is lighter than water and has a high stiffness.