Stainless steel strengthened: Twisting creates submicron 'anti-crash wall'

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Strengthening mechanisms of HCP nanolayers and SFs. Credit: Science (2025). DOI: 10.1126/science.adt6666 A combined team of metallurgists, materials scientists and engineers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shandong University and the Georgia Institute of Technology has developed a way to make stainless steel more resistant to metal fatigue. In their study published in the journal Science, the group developed a new twisting technique that functions as an "anti-crash wall" in the steel, giving it much more strength and resistance to cyclic creep. Metal can experience fatigue when bent many times, leading to breaking. When this occurs in critical applications, it can result in catastrophic accidents such as bridge failures. Because of that, scientists have for many years been working to reduce or preve ... Read full article.