Advanced Materials Group (AdMaG)
Company Background
Section titled “Company Background”Advanced Materials Group (AdMaG) are the industry leaders in the supply of specialist plastics, composites, and aerogels. They operate from locations throughout the solar system, namely Liberty, Arial, and Aresam, where they utilise the microgravity environment to provide high quality products with fewer imperfections than those made in gravitational environments due to the absence of density and convection-based imperfections.
Company Product Overview
Section titled “Company Product Overview”AdMaG produces and distributes a number of standard unformed bulk (10 mm sheets) materials outlined below:
- PMMA Equivalent: σₘₐₓ = 70 MPa. Maximum working temperature = 675K. Density = 1.19 g/cm³. Transmittance = 92%.
- Carbon-Nanotube Reinforced Polycarbonate: σₘₐₓ = 130 MPa. Maximum working temperature = 500K. Density = 1.24 g/cm³. Transmittance = 30%.
- Silica Aerogels: Density = 0.1 g/cm³. Thermal Conductivity = 0.013 W/mK.
- Carbon Aerogels: Density = 0.22 g/cm³. Thermal Conductivity = 0.024 W/mK. Electrical Conductance = 50 S/cm.
- Alumina Aerogels: Density = 0.35 g/cm³. Thermal Conductivity = 0.015 W/mK. This aerogel is increasingly being used as filler material in Whipple shields.
- Flusshalt-X: This is a polymer-based radiation shielding developed by Kepler Automation. This polymer has five times the linear attenuation coefficient of 304 Stainless Steel across the full electromagnetic spectrum. Density = 1.2 g/cm³.
AdMaG is also able to provide specialist orders of formed materials to customer specifications across the full range of plastic, composite, and aerogel materials, not just the materials outlined above. This comes at an additional cost for the material sourcing and the manufacturing costs, but can achieve all manufacturable geometries. Customers should propose their preferred manufacturing method.
Product Pricing
Section titled “Product Pricing”| Product | Price per unit | Additional Information |
|---|---|---|
| PMMA Equivalent | $0.85 per kg | |
| Carbon-Nanotube Reinforced Polycarbonate | $1.60 per kg | |
| Silica Aerogels | $2000 per kg | |
| Carbon Aerogels | $2000 per kg | |
| Alumina Aerogels | $2000 per kg | |
| Flusshalt-X | $70 per kg |
Relevant Physics for Product
Section titled “Relevant Physics for Product”The maximum stress within the window pane can be calculated using the following equation for square windows:
σₘₐₓ = (Δp L²) / (2 t²)
where Δp is the pressure difference in Pa, L is the span in m, t is the thickness in m, and σₘₐₓ is the maximum allowable tensile stress in the material, 290.1 MPa. For circular windows, the equation is:
σₘₐₓ = (3Δp D²) / (4 t²)
where D is the diameter in m. Windows may be ordered in other shapes; when justifying the thickness for these, you can approximate the window as square and replace L² by multiplying the longest dimension of the window by its longest perpendicular component.
The equations above are obtained using Kirchhoff Plate Bending Theory for plates with clamped edges under uniform pressure loads (typically a second or third year topic at university). If you want to read up about this theory and see the derivation for circular plates, please look at this Wikipedia page.
Corporate Links
Section titled “Corporate Links”In return for licensing their Flusshalt-X radiation shielding material to AdMaG, Kepler Automation are able to claim significant discounts on it and other products manufactured by AdMaG. For Foundation Society contracts, this discount is limited to 20%.