John Locke
V U L K A N
SPECIAL FEATURES
Like many Locke & Key Mechanics projects, Diamatrix began with an engineer being annoyed.
Expeditionary teams had long complained about carrying replacement components into the field. A mining team might require drills, pressure seals and structural braces. A medical team needed sterile instruments and containment vessels. Military customers wanted fortifications, replacement armour and cutting tools. Starships carried workshops containing thousands of components on the possibility that a handful might eventually be required.
Onboard manufacturing offered a partial solution, but conventional printed materials rarely possessed the properties of specialised manufactured components.
Locke & Key's engineers approached the problem from the opposite direction.
Rather than asking how many different objects a fabrication system could manufacture, they asked how many different objects could be manufactured from one material.
Their answer was eventually designated Diamatrix.
Early experiments used programmable carbon nanotubes to rapidly construct intricate three-dimensional frameworks. The breakthrough came when researchers discovered that these frameworks could serve as both mould and reinforcement for rapidly deposited synthetic diamond. Suddenly the printer wasn't producing a temporary replacement expected to last until a proper component could be obtained. It was producing components which were sometimes more durable than the objects they replaced.
Field trials rapidly expanded its intended applications.
A damaged viewport could be replaced with transparent Diamatrix. A mining drill could receive a new cutting head. A surgeon could fabricate an instrument moments before an operation. An exploration team could construct an airtight specimen chamber around something too dangerous to move. Engineers could manufacture bearings, braces, seals and tools without carrying any of them aboard their vessel.
Naturally, someone eventually printed a knife.
Locke & Key officially maintains that weapon manufacture was never a primary objective of the Diamatrix programme.
The company's engineers maintain that whoever believed an extraordinarily hard artificial diamond capable of being printed into virtually any shape would not immediately be turned into a weapon had clearly never met any of their customers.
- Extraordinarily hard and tough artificial diamond
- Transparent
- Can be created in any shape required
- Soft like clay:
- The first step in the creation of Diamatrix is the extrusion of a carbon nanotube matrix, shaped in whatever form is required. A blade, a drill, a containment chamber, a window, the carbon nanotubes can very quickly be shaped into whatever is needed.
- Hard like Stone:
- One the frame is in place, strands of loose carbon molecules are quickly layered over it, the carbon molecules coated with a cobalt solution which sinters them to one another (bonds the carbon molecules without forcing them to get hot enough to melt together). In this way an artificial diamond layer is rapidly built into the pre-designed space.
- The synthetic diamond has all the qualities of real diamond, without the expense, or waste, of using real diamonds in the process. There are much better uses for a diamond after all.
- Diamatrix provides extraordinary hardness, thermal conductivity and wear resistance, while the nanotube matrix deals with one of diamond's biggest problems—brittleness—by arresting cracks and distributing stresses through the composite.
- The molecules are lined up so the outside facing molecules are aligned to provide a completely smooth surface, making it hard for any liquid or solid to gain a foothold. It also has the same effect on and dirt or stain.
- That same smoothness of the surface of Diamatrix means that it makes a perfect material for use in medical procedures, or any other process which requires a sterile tool.
- On the edge:
- The hardness and density of Diamatrix means that it holds it's edge very well, and if sharpened to a point, in a blade or drill, it takes a long time and force to dull the edge again making it the perfect material to use on tools and weapons.
- Not going away:
- Diamatrix is extremely tough, one a tool or structure has been formed it isn't going away easily. While this can be useful, for example setting up a containment chamber, or defences, it means when it's use is done it can be a pain to clear up.
- Heat
- While an excellent thermal conductor, at extreme temperatures the various elements within the matrix start to expand at different rates, causing it to crack and shatter.
- Like all diamonds Diamatrix reacts with molten ferrous metals, iron and steel, to break down chemically into iron carbide. Enough exposure to molten iron will eat right through Diamatrix.
Like many Locke & Key Mechanics projects, Diamatrix began with an engineer being annoyed.
Expeditionary teams had long complained about carrying replacement components into the field. A mining team might require drills, pressure seals and structural braces. A medical team needed sterile instruments and containment vessels. Military customers wanted fortifications, replacement armour and cutting tools. Starships carried workshops containing thousands of components on the possibility that a handful might eventually be required.
Onboard manufacturing offered a partial solution, but conventional printed materials rarely possessed the properties of specialised manufactured components.
Locke & Key's engineers approached the problem from the opposite direction.
Rather than asking how many different objects a fabrication system could manufacture, they asked how many different objects could be manufactured from one material.
Their answer was eventually designated Diamatrix.
Early experiments used programmable carbon nanotubes to rapidly construct intricate three-dimensional frameworks. The breakthrough came when researchers discovered that these frameworks could serve as both mould and reinforcement for rapidly deposited synthetic diamond. Suddenly the printer wasn't producing a temporary replacement expected to last until a proper component could be obtained. It was producing components which were sometimes more durable than the objects they replaced.
Field trials rapidly expanded its intended applications.
A damaged viewport could be replaced with transparent Diamatrix. A mining drill could receive a new cutting head. A surgeon could fabricate an instrument moments before an operation. An exploration team could construct an airtight specimen chamber around something too dangerous to move. Engineers could manufacture bearings, braces, seals and tools without carrying any of them aboard their vessel.
Naturally, someone eventually printed a knife.
Locke & Key officially maintains that weapon manufacture was never a primary objective of the Diamatrix programme.
The company's engineers maintain that whoever believed an extraordinarily hard artificial diamond capable of being printed into virtually any shape would not immediately be turned into a weapon had clearly never met any of their customers.
Out Of Character Info
Intent:
To submit a new material for use in future subs and RP
Primary Source(s):
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/polycrystalline-diamond
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_diamond
Technical Information
Affiliation:
Locke and Key Mechanics
Model:
Diamatrix
Modular:
No
Material:
Carbon
