Tuesday, December 12, 2006

US Patent 7147726 - Nanoparticle Fabrication Using Ball Impact

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7147726.pdf

The typical methods for nanoparticle fabrication include a variety of chemical processes usually involving catalytic materials, high temperatures and specialized processing steps. The method proposed by this patent instead employs a mechanical mechanism based on agitation of ball bearings to mill a metal target in order to generate a nanostructured layer on the target. Claim 3 reads:

3. A mechanical device for generating nanostructures in a metal piece comprising at least one chamber that is closed for the size of the balls containing a given quantity of perfectly spherical balls of given dimensions, means for linking the chamber with means for generating a vibration communicated to the chamber, the assembly of the chamber and vibrating means being mounted on shock absorbing means on a plate adapted to be rotated at a given speed.