All language subtitles for Modern.Marvels.S23E02.Amazing.Aluminum.1080p.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H264-BTN_track3_[eng]

- [Narrator] It's the third
most abundant metal on earth,

once considered so
rare and precious,

it was used to crown
the Washington Monument.

Today it transports
us, protects us,

and can even help unlock the
secrets of the universe.

- If you look
around anywhere,

you will see it being applied
in just about everything we do.

- [Narrator] Can you imagine
a world without aluminum?

Find out on Modern Marvels.

[upbeat electronic music]

There's a good reason

the world devours 165,000
tons of aluminum every day,

and why the United
States alone

gobbles almost 9
billion pounds a year.

[upbeat music]

Modern civilization
couldn't survive without it.

This strong, lightweight,

flexible rustproof
wonder is everywhere.

An integral part of
the planes we fly,

cars we drive, the
structures of our cities,

and the power lines carrying
electricity to our homes.

But most know it best when
aluminum is no thicker

than a human hair.

It's found this way in
over 95% of households,

as aluminum foil.

[upbeat music]

Impervious to light,
air and moisture.

It's perfect for preparing
and preserving food.

- There's nothing
better for a barrier.

Moisture protection, freshness,

the dead full characteristics

that we use it to
wrap our products,

it's just, there's
nothing better.

- [Narrator] But how
does it get so thin?

And why is it shiny on one
side and dull on the other?

The Reynolds Factory
in Richmond, Virginia,

maker of 340,000 pounds
of aluminum foil every day,

holds the answers.

The aluminum arrives
by rail car,

as massive 32,000 pound coils.

- Once we receive the coils,

they're unloaded
off the rail car,

we go into annealing ovens.

The annealing process
helps soften the metal

so that we can further reduce it

to the gauge and thickness
that most people see

in our standard
Reynolds wrap products.

- [Narrator] Each sheet is
four and a half thousandths

of an inch thick.

About the same as
a compact disc.

Thinning the softened sheet is
a job for the rolling mills.

Since the pressure they exert
on the aluminum could create

sparks and ignite fires,

a cooling lubricant douses
the sheet as it enters.

Inside the mill,

the sheet passes between a pair
of powered spinning rollers.

Larger non-powered rollers
positioned above and below them

apply even pressure,

helping them flatten the
sheet in a uniform manner.

One pass through the mill
reduces the sheet thickness

by half.

It's also getting a lot longer

as the 300,000 yard
long coiled sheet,

makes six passes through three
different rolling mills.

- When it finishes on
our finishing mill,

it's about 240 miles long

because we've reduced it
and increased the length.

- [Narrator] This final pass
through the finishing mill

holds the secret to why aluminum
foil is shiny on one side,

but not the other.

- So in order to support
the metal and ensure

we can pull it through the
mill, we double pass it.

We have two sheets of metal
running through the mill

at the same time.

- [Narrator] Since the outer
sides of each sheet contact,

the highly polished
lubricated roller surface,

they emerge shiny.

And since the inner sides
touch only each other,

they emerge with a matte finish.

After the double foil exits,

each single layer is
only 6.4 ten thousandths

of an inch thick, six
times thinner than a sheet

of standard copier paper.

- In this process, we're
separating the metal

from the double sheet
to single sheet.

The separation
occurs at this point.

One sheet is going
to the upper roll,

the other sheet
to the lower roll.

- [Narrator] As the
sheets of foil separate,

a set of knives behind
this metal housing

slices the rolls into six
equal divisions

measuring 12 inches across.

Next, mechanical arms
break apart the divisions.

Now the foil is at its
final thickness and width.

Shortening each coil
to the standard length

happens at the packing facility.

The coil runs through a spooler

that cuts each sheet and
wraps it around a fiber core

300 times per minute.

Machines then guide
the cores into cartons.

And the foil is
ready to wrap food

for the fridge, freezer or
grill all around the world.

But does it matter
which side faces in

and which side faces out?

- Actually, it
makes no difference

whether you use the dull versus
the shiny side of the foil.

They both are gonna perform the
same for cooking or freezing

or storing with foil.

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] Aluminum
foils roots stretch back

over eight decades,

when metals other than aluminum

were preserving the goods

that fed our sweet tooths
and smoking habits.

- It got its origins way
back in about the 1920s.

When Reynolds Metals
Company was in the business

of producing lead and tin foil

that was used in
cigarette packaging.

And they started
wondering if possibly

this protective foil

could be made better
and more economically

by using the new
metal called aluminum.

- [Narrator] Aluminum
arrived for home use in 1947.

Touted as a new kitchen miracle,

Reynolds Wrap debuted as a 25
foot long, 12 inch wide roll

packaged in pink and silver.

- Well, aluminum foil
as a household foil

was never made from lead or tin.

And it's kind of interesting
that people still refer to it

sometimes as tin foil today.

- [Narrator] But where
does the aluminum used

to make foil and a million
other things come from?

It's right beneath our feet.

Beckoning to miners is
the most abundant metal

in the Earth's crust.

Out of every 1 million
atoms in the ground,

82,000 are aluminum.

But pure aluminum doesn't
exist on its own in nature.

It can be found locked
away in reddish deposits

of bauxite ore.

The richest deposits of
the ore exist in Australia,

Brazil,

Russia,

and China.

A refining process
will begin to extract

the stubborn aluminum.

A caustic soda digests
the ore-rich dirt

into a liquid and allows the
separation of its components.

Resulting white residue is
then dried into a white powder.

A compound called
aluminum oxide or alumina.

This is the stuff from
which aluminum is made.

The trick now is isolating
the aluminum from the oxygen.

To pull that off you
need to transport

the alumina to a
production facility.

Like the one ALCOA operates
here near Evansville, Indiana.

- We receive a barge every
day into our ore dock.

It's got roughly 3.2 million
pounds of alumina on it,

and we vacuum it
out of the barge.

It's basically like a
large vacuum cleaner

that you'd use at home.

- [Narrator] The vacuum suctions
about 300 tons per hour,

emptying the barge in 10 hours

and depositing the powder
onto conveyor belts.

- Actually there's no
smell to it at all.

It's got a real
granular feel to it.

It's a little more coarse
than what talcum powder is,

more like salt.

[upbeat rock music]

- [Narrator] Inside the
120 acre mega complex,

750 pots await the powder.

Each contains a
molten salt bath.

Every two minutes,

an overhead feeder dumps seven
pounds into one of the pots.

As the powder begins to melt,

the most critical
component to isolating

the aluminum takes charge.

Electricity, and lots of it.

The onsite coal plant
delivers enough juice

to the pots to
power 300,000 homes.

The electricity flows through
the copper rods connected

to steel blocks suspended
in a pot salt bath.

The aluminum oxide
molecules filling the bath

contain two aluminum atoms
and three oxygen atoms.

The electric current
breaks the bond

and forces the atoms apart.

- And in that process,

you're making liquid
metal and the metal

is a little bit
denser than the bath.

It settles to the
bottom of the pot.

And then carbon oxide
bubbles are given off.

- [Narrator] But the
process isn't over yet,

workers then have to
extract the molten aluminum

from the pots and
turn it into a solid.

- Crews literally vacuum
the metal out in a process

we call tapping.

They use a large container
and it's got a spout on it.

We apply air to it
and create a vacuum

and suck the metal outta
the bottom of the pot.

- [Narrator] Forklifts
then transport the crucibles

to a holding furnace,

where cranes lift and
spill out the molten metal.

Then channels into
casting chambers,

where it will solidify.

These holding
monoliths are destined

to become everything
from beer cans,

to sauce pans, to
siding on your house.

But if you thought
aluminum is the only secret

to all your typical
household items, think again.

- [Narrator] Aluminum,
from the kitchen to cans,

it's many uses have
become an integral

part of our daily lives.

Not bad for a metal
that's definitely

the new kid on the block.

- Well, the one thing
to keep in mind is that

aluminum is a fairly new metal.

Bronze, lead, iron, copper
have been around for centuries.

Aluminum was first actually
discovered as an element

by chemist Sir Davy in 1808.

- [Narrator] But discovering
this unique metal

was one thing.

Divorcing it from its
ore compound was another.

Throughout most of
the 19th century,

a variety of chemical
processes could only generate

impure samples in
minute quantities.

Aluminum was so rare,

it was nearly twice
as expensive as gold.

In the 1880s, when
advances in processing

helped reduce its price,

it was the fitting
choice for engineers

completing construction of
the Washington Monument,

who sought a precious capstone
for their master work.

The aluminum pyramid they
placed atop the marble spire

weighed 100 ounces.

At the time, the largest
piece of aluminum ever cast.

Two years later in 1886,

came the discovery that
made aluminum accessible

and inexpensive.

Two scientists
working independently,

Frenchman Paul Aru and
American Charles Martin Hall,

hit upon the chemical
electric extraction process

still in use today.

Aluminum's market
price plummeted

to less than a dollar per pound.

The breakthrough
unshackled the metal

and triggered the rise of
revolutionary new industries.

Today, one of those industries
crafts the aluminum

that helps lift this
Goliath double-decker jet.

The Airbus A380

is the largest commercial
aircraft in the world.

It stretches 10 feet longer
and towers 16 feet taller

than a Boeing 747.

It weighs in at a whopping
1.2 million pounds.

Unlike most commercial aircraft,

65% of that bulk is aluminum.

It's a no-brainer that
aluminum's light weight

makes it a perfect construction
material for planes.

But more important
is its flexibility.

- Aluminum is ideally
suited for flying

more than any other material.

It's important that the
material be able to withstand,

and give-and-take in
those pressurizations

and depressurizations that occur

thousands of times over the
life cycle of an airplane.

- [Narrator] The wings of
the A380, like any airplane

suffer constant stress.

On the ground, they sag
from their own weight.

In the sky, the air
flow required for lift

pushes the wings in
the opposite direction.

The A380's pliable wings
span over 260 feet

and are comprised of the
largest pieces of aluminum

on the plane.

10 separate sheets case
the surface of each wing.

Five on top and five underneath.

They cover a series of
aluminum ribs and spars,

which form the skeleton needed

to support the wings' length.

The wingskins for the A380

are among the thousands of
aluminum parts made here,

at ALCOA's Davenport
Worksmill in Iowa.

The plant is large enough
to contain a golf course,

Mill workers craft wing
sections up to 112 feet long

and weighing over 11,000 pounds.

They begin with enormous
18 inch thick, 70 inch wide

aluminum alloy blocks.

The task of transforming
each into a wingskin

begins with this
beastly rolling mill,

measuring over 18 feet across,
the widest in the world.

Just like the raw sheets
that become aluminum foil,

the metal will get
thinner and thinner

and longer and longer.

Until it is about
one inch thick.

Saws then cut each flattened
plate to various shapes

depending on where they'll
be positioned on the wing.

Finally, twin milling heads
refine and taper the pieces

as necessary by skinning
the plate surface.

- We use 30 inch
diameter cutter.

It will generate
this machine pattern

on here that looks like swirls.

- [Narrator] The completed
wing skins are now for assembly

by Airbus and other
aircraft manufacturers.

[plane engine roaring]

Flying with anything
but aluminum

seems almost
inconceivable today.

Yet plane making
pioneers fashioned

the bodies of their crafts
out of fabric covered wood.

But wood can rot and splinter.

Seeking a more durable material
following World War I,

German designer, Hugo
Yonkers was among the first

to build planes sheathed
in aluminum alloy.

[plane engine roaring]

In 1935, the Douglas DC-3

and its all aluminum body,

ushered in the age
of commercial flight.

Sporting longer and larger
wings than its predecessors,

it could fly higher and faster.

It could also carry more fuel.

Minimizing refueling stops.

The duration of a coast
to coast flight fell

from an agonizing 26 hours

to less than 18.

And today, aluminum carries
commercial travelers

through the air for more than
800 billion miles every year.

But planes aren't the only
form of transportation

revolutionized by aluminum.

Our favorite four-wheelers
contain over 500 pounds of it.

- [Narrator] For over 100 years,

aluminum has been used to
manufacture automobiles.

In fact, Carl Benz,

who co-founded the world
famous Mercedes-Benz company,

constructed the world's first
aluminum car engine in 1901.

It's estimated
that car companies

use 20% of the aluminum
mined each year.

And proportionally
less and less steel.

Why?

Well, for starters,
it saves gas.

- Aluminum is significantly
lighter than steel

and it gives you
somewhere between

30 and 50% mass reduction
compared to steel.

And the general ratio is if
you take 10% of the mass out

of a vehicle,

you can get up to about 8% of
improvement in fuel economy.

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] Auto
makers prefer aluminum

because it's easier
to melt and to shape.

That's a big plus when
it comes to casting

the parts for the engine

that represents much
of a car's weight.

- What we've done here
is take two crucibles.

We've filled one with aluminum

and the other one
with chunks of steel.

We put both of these
crucibles in a furnace

and we set the furnace at
800 degrees centigrade.

If you can see that
the aluminum is melted.

And the steel is
still chunks of steel

that are sitting there,

maybe a bit red-hot, but
nevertheless not melted.

This is one of the most critical

and important attributes of
aluminum, that it can melt

at low temperatures.

So we can melt it and
pour into cavities

to make castings.

- [Narrator] While
this fluid wonder metal

is helping cars lose
weight under their hoods,

it's also helping them get
their bodies into shape.

- It also allows you to
make a lot of shapes

that you couldn't
make otherwise.

- [Narrator] One way GM
shapes its aluminum parts

is with water,

in a process known
as hydroforming.

- The reason we tube hydroform

is we're able to form it
in any particular shape

that we need it without
welding sections together.

The hydroforming process
allows us to make one part

and is proven to be
higher durability

than you get out of two
pieces welded together.

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] The water
shaped tubes will become

part of the frame of a Corvette.

Once a tube enters the die,

high capacity pumps flood
it with up to a hundred

gallons of water.

The resulting pressure
helps the aluminum form

into the precise
shapes of the die.

It's all over in less
than two minutes.

- I'm sitting in the
Corvette body structure

that contains aluminum
hydroformed rails.

These aluminum rails
replaced steel rails

that serve the same
function, but were heavier.

[car engine roaring]

This enables us to produce
a Corvette that is lighter

and has better zero-to-60 time

than you would get
with the steel version.

[car engine roaring]

- [Narrator] The pressure
to shape aluminum car parts

isn't restricted to water.

You can also use air with
what is known as QPF.

- It stands for Quick
Plastic Forming,

which is not plastic,

we're working with aluminum,

but we take aluminum to an
elevated temperature state

in order to form
parts and shapes

that we can't normally form.

In this operation, we're making
the Cadillac STS trunk lid.

The inner panel is just now
coming out of the press,

fully formed.

What's coming in is the
preheated aluminum sheet.

As soon as that die gets closed,

we use air pressure to force
that aluminum up against that

steel die cavity that
gives us our shape.

[inquisitive music]

- [Narrator] QPF technology
fashioned aluminum body panels

for GM's fuel cell
powered concept car,

the Sequel.

Whether powered by hydrogen,
battery, or hybrid engines,

future vehicles
must become lighter

than ever to be competitive.

- When you put a lot of
money into the power train

like you need to do
in those vehicles,

it doesn't make sense to
pull around a steel cage.

A wood bat is the foundation
of professional baseball.

It has been since before
the days of the Babe.

To maintain that
tradition, pro players

can't use anything else.

[aluminum bat pings]

But aspiring pros aren't
required to use wood.

In fact, more than 90%
of all bats sold today

are made not from
wood, but aluminum.

The reasons are obvious.

First, bats made from
aluminum are lighter, enabling

players to generate more
bat speed as they swing.

But unlike wood,

aluminum can be
strategically balanced along

the length of a bat,

Allowing it to
channel vibrations

and transfer energy
more efficiently.

As a result, on contact,

baseballs fly up
to 20 feet farther.

And the bat's sweet spot, the
ideal hit zone, is larger.

They debuted at the
collegiate level in 1974

and forever altered the
nature of the game.

- By 1976, the batting averages

for NCAA had climbed 30 points.

So there was a big
difference in terms of

just simply putting
the ball in play.

[bat pings]

- [Narrator] The
Anderson Bat Company

in Orange County, California,

one of the few remaining
American bat makers,

crafts 300 aluminum
bats every day.

[bat pings]

The simple shape
of the aluminum bat

masks the precise science
behind its creation.

- The aluminum has the
strength to weight ratio

that is probably the
most advantageous

of any of the metals.

[upbeat funky music]

- [Narrator] Anderson makes
its top of the line bat

from an aluminum alloy
with a touch of zinc.

It adds toughness
and durability.

The process begins with 17 foot
long, hollow aluminum tubes.

[saw whirring]

An operator saws the
tubes to lengths ranging

from 22 to 26 inches,

depending on the
final bat model.

Then it's up to a machine
called the Rotary Swager,

to reshape each tube
into a precisely molded

and balanced bat.

The aluminum fits
over a mandrill bar,

as it enters the swager
between a twin pair of dies.

As the taper die halves
rotate, they open out.

A series of spinning rollers
positioned around the perimeter,

shove the dies back
and close them.

The rotation opens and
closes the dies 1500 times

per minute.

As the aluminum feeds
into the swager,

it's forced to take the shape
of the narrowing die cavity.

The aluminum needs three passes
through the Rotary Swager.

Each pass thins the wall
and elongates the tube.

A final pass tapers the handle.

- This is the cut stock.

This is what you saw earlier
and it's 26 inches long.

This one is a first pass.

It's the thinning stage of it.

This is a second thinning stage.

And you can see the
as, as we go and thin,

the tube gets longer.

And then this is the final pass.

And while this is 26,
this is 41 inches long.

- [Narrator] These bats
may now be expertly shaped

and balanced,

but before they can
punish baseballs,

they have to be hardened.

[upbeat funky music]

This happens just
a few miles away

at a facility where a hot bath

waits to heat
treat the aluminum.

The bath doesn't hold hot water,

but rather sodium nitrate.

Unlike water, the salt solution
won't corrode the aluminum.

- Heat treat is a
two step process,

an elevated temperature for
a certain amount of time.

And then a rapid
cooling called a quench.

It's kind of exciting, because
you go from this salt bath

to a water tank and you
have to do it with less

than 15 seconds.

- [Narrator] The rapid cooling
following the elevated

temperature soak creates
microscopic particles

in the aluminum,

Which strengthen the metal.

After the bats bake in an oven
to preserve their hardness

and shape, an inspector
checks each one to see

if it's a hit or an error.

- What we're looking
for is a range.

If it's too hard, the
aluminum can crack.

And if it's too soft,
obviously it will dent.

- [Narrator] After
the inspection,

workers at another facility
add the graphics and color.

And workers back at
Anderson Bat Company

apply the finishing touches.

An end on the handle, cap.

And the grip.

How does this finely
crafted aluminum bat

compare to one made of wood?

- What we're measuring is
the velocity of the ball

off of the bat from the tee.

And the radar gun
actually picks up the very

fastest point of the ball
between the tee and the gun.

And we're gonna start
with the wood bat.

[bat cracks]

Okay. That's 86 miles an hour.

[bat cracks]

85.

[giggles]

- [Narrator] And now
the aluminum bat.

[bat pings]

- 91.

[bat pings]

91, wow.

- If, say this point right
here is my ideal hit zone,

where I'm gonna get
my best performance,

with an aluminum bat,
the size of that hit zone

is gonna be larger
than with the wood bat.

So say the wood bat is gonna
be the size of a baseball,

your aluminum bat's
gonna be double that.

It's gonna be the
size of two baseballs.

So the chances of me
getting better performance

when I mis-hit a bat is
gonna increase as opposed

to using a wood bat.

[cheerful organ music]

- [Narrator] Will aluminum
bats ever graduate

from college to the pros?

Don't hold your breath.

- Baseball is a very
traditional sport

and wood, the crack of the bat
and all of that is very much

a part of the
fabric of baseball.

At the same time,

if you were to put
aluminum bat in the hands

of professional players,

you would have to
change all of records.

They'd have to be asterisked.

- [Narrator] Ball players
aren't the only ones reaching

new heights with aluminum.

- [Narrator] A new telescope
called the Giant Magellan,

the world's largest, is planned
to begin peering skyward

from an observatory in Chile,

sometime in the next few years.

A cluster of seven mirrors
more than 80 feet in diameter,

will redirect so much
light from the heavens

to astronomers' eyes.

It will produce images
up to 10 times sharper

than the Hubble Space Telescope.

It will allow astronomers
to study newly discovered

black holes, stars,
and galaxies.

But the Giant Magellan
wouldn't see anything,

without aluminum
coating each mirror.

Your mirror at home
uses a layer of silver,

and it's actually slightly
more reflective than aluminum.

But astronomers use aluminum
for their telescopes

because it's more durable and
less expensive to maintain.

Making aluminum coated
mirrors for telescopes

isn't as simple as dipping
a brush in buckets

of aluminum paint and
slapping it on glass.

Just ask the scientists

at NASA's Goddard Space
Flight Center in Maryland.

The setting for the
transformation of glass

into mirror is a
vacuum chamber.

- [Felix] The process
of coating the mirror

demands that the environment
not be contaminated.

We actually evacuate most of
the air out of the chamber.

So the cleaner the chamber is,

the cleaner the
coating is going to be.

- [Narrator] With
the glass in place,

it's time to add the aluminum.

- These staples are
99.999 pure aluminum.

We use these as the base
for the aluminum coatings.

We put them by hand on
the tungsten filaments

to prepare for the
coating process.

- [Narrator] The lid
lowers, sealing the chamber,

and a pump removes
virtually all the air.

An electric current
heats the filaments,

melting the staples and removing
any lingering impurities

in the aluminum.

- Once the aluminum is melted,

this is the way it
looks on the filament.

So you can see that the aluminum

is no longer a hard staple,

but it's actually wetted along
the coils of the filament.

- [Narrator] Next, a second
stronger electric current

passes through the filaments.

In a blinding flash,
the aluminum vaporizes,

the hot aluminum gas
rises and condenses

on the cooler glass surface.

The deposited layer is 1500
times thinner than a human hair.

But as shiny as the
aluminum coating is,

it faces a host of enemies.

- Over time, moisture and pollen

and bugs and things
like that will get on

the optical surfaces.

And they'll start
etching into the aluminum

and they degrade the
coating over time.

- [Narrator] The
only way to restore

an aluminum coated mirror

is to remove the
corrupted coating

and replace it with a fresh one.

It's a major event
for observatories

and a necessity about
every two years.

First, technicians
must remove the mirror

from the telescope's housing.

Stripping off the old coating
starts with soap and water.

Chemical solvents then eat
away the aluminum coating

to reveal the
underlying glass base.

Next, paper towels are used
to clean and dry the glass

before a vacuum chamber
lowers into place

and deposits the shiny aluminum.

Bugs and dirt aren't a worry
for the orbiting, 95 inch,

aluminum coated mirror
on the Hubble.

But NASA engineers have
to guard it against

an entirely different threat.

- You go up in space and you
have extreme differentials.

If it's facing the sun,

if it's night time,
you're talking hundreds

of degrees in variation

and that'll change the
contour of the mirror.

- [Narrator] Trying
to lick the problem,

NASA scientists have developed
a new kind of aluminum mirror

without a glass base.

- You can use the
aluminum to make

your mirror and the
mounting structure

all out of the same material.

If the temperature changes,

then your mirror and
your mounting structure,

then shrinks or expands
by the same amount.

So you don't get distortions
and stresses that will twist

the mirror and destroy
its imaging properties.

- [Narrator] The challenge
for NASA's engineers

is to turn pure aluminum discs
like this one into mirrors.

A diamond-tipped
blade is the answer.

It will dig in just
below the surface

and in a uniform slice,
begin to smooth the aluminum

to a natural shine.

During the procedure,

a paint thinner solution
sprays away debris.

It also cools the diamond tip,

which heats up as it
carves into the metal.

And after just two minutes,

A final polishing treatment

will smooth out leftover

microscopic imperfections.

NASA scientists speculate
that pure aluminum mirrors

like this could someday replace

the more common aluminum
coated glass mirrors.

[rocket engine roaring]

Of course NASA's love
affair with aluminum

isn't just limited to mirrors.

- Anything you wanna lift
off the surface of the Earth.

You're fighting gravity.

You want to look for materials
that very lightweight

and strong and take advantage
of other properties.

Reducing them as to
take it to orbit,

is a big deal.

Every pound, every ounce counts.

And so aluminum has a
perfect combination of many

of the characteristics
we look for.

It is very lightweight.

It's malleable, meaning that
you can work with it, easier.

It doesn't corrode,

see if you look around
anywhere in NASA,

you will see it being applied

in just about
everything we do.

- [Narrator] And it's been
that way for over five decades.

- It has been one
of those materials

that actually have made

many of the things that
we're doing now possible.

- [Narrator] As aluminum
continues to help us explore

new worlds,

it could also better protect
us in extreme weather events.

- [Narrator] There are still few
measures to help prevent total

destruction when an extreme
weather event arises

in your town.

Tornadoes, in the
Midwest and Plains,

reaching 219 miles per hour.

Costing the United States

an average of $2.5 million
annually in recovery.

And in Southern,
hurricane-prone states,

a category five event
like Hurricane Harvey

resulted in approximately
$125 billion in damages.

But these homes and buildings
may have fared better

had they been clad in
another form of aluminum

produced by Canada's
Cymat Technologies.

They call it aluminum foam.

Its unique sponge-like
structure could prove

to be a lifesaver
around the globe.

- [Wayne] The foam basically
absorbs the shock wave

so that there isn't
such a severe impact.

- [Narrator] Aluminum
foams key ingredient

is nothing more than air.

But the real trick to
making it isn't injecting

air bubbles and the aluminum.

It's keeping the bubbles
intact once they're inside.

- Our material is
molten aluminum

with ceramic particles in it.

Those particles
stabilize the bubbles,

in other words, stop
them from popping.

And a good example of this is
if you've ever tried to use

dried cocoa powder
and mix it into milk,

and as you're doing it,

you see this froth forming
on the surface with,

with the dried cocoa
on the bubbles,

the bubbles are stable.

- [Narrator] Cymat begins
its production process

by melting down aluminum bars

already containing
the ceramic particles.

The furnace holding
material spills

a scalding stream
into a channel leading

to a receptacle called
the foaming box.

Now it's time for the
all important air.

Inside the foaming box,
a nozzle injects air,

creating bubbles in
the molten concoction.

More air creates a less dense
and lighter final product.

A propeller at the
end of the nozzle

keeps the ceramic particles
evenly distributed.

The bubbles rise, and as
they reach the surface,

begin to cool and harden.

- When it gets to the
top of the foaming box,

it's already
starting to solidify.

So it curves up onto the
belt and goes into the press.

And that takes a lot of
the heat out very quickly

to solidify the cells and
give you the solid panel.

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] The emerging,
half-inch-thick panels

measure four by eight feet.

Solid aluminum this size could
weigh more than 300 pounds.

But each of these panels
weighs only about 30 pounds.

Foamed aluminum can
also be injected

into a three dimensional cast.

What looks like a
heavy chunk of metal

is actually light enough
to float in water.

A view of the casting
skeleton shows why.

- In the X-ray machine

we have a part that
from the outside looks

like a solid aluminum casting.

We're looking right on
the edge of the part.

You can see a dark line
here where we're actually

looking down the
edge of the casting.

But if I rotate this, you can
see the cellular structure.

There's a lot more air there
than there is solid material,

but the cellular structure
allows it to collapse

and absorb energy.

Imagine each one of these
little bubbles is breaking.

These cells is breaking as the,

the part is crushed and there's
energy being absorbed by

every one of those
walls collapsing.

- One of the applications
for this product

is crash boxes in automobiles.

Crash box is the element
in a bumper system,

which absorbs the energy
in a low impact crash.

We take a normal hollow
aluminum extrusion

that might form that crash box.

And we insert aluminum
foam inside the product

and then crush it as it
would be crushed in a crash.

It does two things,

it absorbs the energy

and it also forces
the aluminum extrusion

to create many folds.

And every one of those
folds absorbs energy.

- [Narrator] Aluminum foam is
just the latest incarnation

of this invaluable metal.

- A world without aluminum,
perhaps I'm biased,

but for me, it's unimaginable.

- [Narrator] A century
before it helped

carry man to the moon,

Jules Verne hinted at
its vast potential,

describing it as having
the lightness of silver,

the indestructibility of gold,

the tenacity of iron,

and the likeness of glass.

But even that great visionary
couldn't have foreseen

the scope of aluminum's
many modern applications.

[plane engine roaring]

But if you thought
aluminum is the only secret

to all your typical
household items, think again.

Coming up on Modern Marvels,

we'll show you how aluminum
is the key to getting this

nearly 1 million pound
machine off the ground.

But planes aren't the only
form of transportation

revolutionized by aluminum.

Our favorite four-wheelers
contain over 500 pounds of it.

Coming up, a machine
that owes a lot

to this magnificent
metal, your car.

[car engine roaring]

in a different kind of
cage, a batting cage.

How do you create a baseball bat

that beats the competition?

Here's a hint, give it
one outrageously hot bath.

They'd have to be asterisked.

- [Narrator] Ball players
aren't the only ones reaching

new heights with aluminum.

Coming up.

Think aluminum is only used
for things here on earth?

Not quite,

turns out we needed to
gaze into the deepest

reaches of the universe.

- [Narrator] As aluminum
continues to help us explore

new worlds,

it could also better protect
us in extreme weather events.

Coming up, how
this spongy wonder

could save your most
precious belongings.

And your life.

- [Narrator] We now
return to Modern Marvels.

A wood bat is the foundation
of professional baseball.