A question on Durandium

[Soresu]

Is it naturally occuring (i.e being mined) or does it have to be processed into the finished product? I know most metals need refinement and what not, but I ask since I have no clue if it is a mined material, or produced.

 

[Fred]

I'd wager on mined and refined.

Unless you want to hear my explanation of how Durandium is actually titanium sheets whom are positioned to reflect the image of me and suddenly gain extraordinary properties?

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

I always assumed it was synthetic, namely due to it's practically magical properties (Weighs as much as aluminum, but tougher than steel by several dozen magnitudes, etc.).

 

[Zack]

Yeah, it also says that it was produced by the Nermian Industrial Sector in the writeup, implying that it is a synthetic material.

 

[Soresu]

Hmm. Then it'd be several different ores combined?

 

[Wes]

I think we should rule it as a naturally occurring substance. I know that's scientifically unlikely, but it makes for better RP because it's something people can mine (And fight over territory for).

 

[OsakanOne]

Yeah. I'm thinking it's a fancy market name for an alloy or compound material.
It happens all the time irl.

 

[SUBLIMEinal]

Well... where would we find it, then? Durandium is quite possibly the most widely-used substance in the entire setting, especially with the movement to begin phasing out Zesuaium. Something with Durandium's properties probably wouldn't pop up all that often in nature, but it is apparently a very abundant and cheap material, meaning that it's either essentially everywhere, or it's concentrated in several areas, but in extremely high concentrations. I'm afraid the concept of natural, limited Durandium essentially negates the purpose of the material: A cheap, medium-aptitude armor available to most nations.

 

[Wes]

I'm sure either it or the material to make it, for the reasons posted above, is available on most "mineral rich" worlds or areas.

 

[Zack]

I don't think we can reasonably call this a substance that is mined out of the ground. There pretty much aren't any substances that are still mined that are used as metals in products today, almost everything is some sort of alloy.

Or at the very least we should make it clear that you can't pull it out of the ground and slap it on a tank, there is a lot of processing work to be done first.

 

[Strangelove]

What about making it a natural allotrope/isotope of something? Something very impure that can simply be enriched (like how enriched uranium is created by extracting U-235 from large quantities U-238), or a mineral that forms a special allotrope under extreme conditions (like carbon becomes diamond). I think maybe one of those is what Wes means by natural, as in not being purely synthetic.

 

[Wes]

Okay, my official GM ruling on this is:

Durandium is a lightweight metallic alloy created from commonly available elements including large amounts of processed aluminum and a significant quantity of synthetic carbon nanotubes.

It is fairly easy for technologically-apt nations to produce large quantities of the material. Once created by a processing plant, Durandium is molded into sheets or blocks. Factories press the sheets or melt or the blocks into the desired shapes.

The relative toughness, cheapness, and availability of Durandium have made it once of the universe's most favored material for building vehicle frames and light starship armor.

Durandium Alloy is also called Solanium (by Nerimians).

I will update the wiki.
https://wiki.stararmy.com/doku.php?id=durandium

 

[Soresu]

Well, that certainly answers my question. Thanks!

 

[OsakanOne]

Could we see some more materials given entries like this?

I'm trying to decide what a good material is for an endo-skeletal cybernetic body-armor I'm tinkering with.

 

[Strangelove]

The Middle East, Russia, and India were historically renowned for producing a special grade of metal known as Damascus Steel, Bulat Steel, and Wootz Steel, respectively. These materials gained fame for producing extremely strong and sharp swords, but unfortunately the exact process was lost to time. Many now believe that whatever process they used to make these metals integrated natural nanotubes into the metal, which resulted in their considerable strength and hardness.

Perhaps we could tweak the history to add a similar context: having Durandium result along parallel lines as the above, except the process was never lost. As technology progressed stronger nanotubes could be produced, and it eventually resulted in a high-strength material. Since it would be based on such an "ancient" technique, almost any race could look at the at the basic historical process and refine it with advanced science. This could explain why the metal is so common and extensively used around the known universe.