BMW takes automobile engineering seriously and it shows in their latest BMW M5 fifth generation saloon.
The company demoed concept M5 in April and released the details of the latest BMW M5. The car is expected to go on sale by the end of 2011. The car is the first one to take the advantage of company’s BMW M V8 engine which rockets the car from 0 – 100 kmph (~62 mph) in just, hold your breath – 4.4 seconds! For the speed maniacs, the car will take you from 0 – 200 kmph in approximately 13 seconds and BMW’s engineers decided to cap the max speed at 250 kmph or 305 km/h with the optional M Driver’s Package. But that’s not all with the new beast – the engine efficiency has been turbo charged as well.
The fifth generation BMW M5′s engine has been developed by BMW’s M division. The 4.4 liter, twin-turbocharged V8 engine delivers 412 kW/560 hp at 6,000-7,000 rpm. The max torque of 680 Nm develops at 1500 rpm. BMW claims that the efficiency of the engine has been improved by approximately 10 percent while the max torque has been improved by over 30%. The tests results indicate that the car will do 100 kilometers in about 9.9 liters of fuel. The improvement in fuel efficiency has been made possible by the auto start-stop and brake energy regeneration. The rear wheels are powered by seven-speed M double clutch Drivelogic transmission. Car’s agility has been greatly improved by electronically controlled rear axle Active M Differential. The steering wheel has M Drive Buttons to control the two car setup configurations. These configurations include Drivelogic shift program, M Servotronic responses, accelerator responses, DSC mode, Dynamic Damper Control. BMW M5 will make a debut at Frankfurt Motor Show in September.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have formulated a new method that can be used for large scale manufacturing of metamaterials. The metamaterials are alloys with slightly unusual properties. This class of materials can interact with light in a different manner. Some of these materials can be used for producing futuristic optical devices like invisibility cloaks, superlenses and other devices.
The prototypes for such state of the art gadgets have been already developed but the main problem is that these materials are hard to fabricate in large quantities. The new printing methodology is said to be able to manufacture sheets of metamaterials with dimensions large enough to create practical devices. Small sheets measuring hardly a few hundred nanometers were developed till now which were hardly sufficient for anything except laboratory demonstrations.
The team of scientists is led by John Rogers, professor of material engineering at the University of Illinois. Metamaterials have an intricate and complex molecular lattice. It has a layered structure with overlapping metal layers. The main constraint while designing these alloys is that the dimensions should be comparable to the wavelength of the light spectrum in which the material has to operate. Till now, complex techniques like electron beam lithography. Rogers and his group have developed a simpler alternative that is economically feasible. It is basically a stamp based printing technique that can be used for bigger pieces of metamaterials. Some of the substances belonging to this category of materials have a negative refractive index with respect to infrared light and hence do not reflect the incident light. This property makes it suitable for making super lenses, hi tech optical communication devices, night vision invisibility cloak, etc.
The fabrication process is pretty simple. Initially, the desires hard plastic stamp is shaped on which a fishnet like pattern of layer is embossed. This stamp is then placed in an evaporation chamber where it gets coated with alternative layers of sacrificial layer and metamaterials. The main metamaterial ingredients are oxides of magnesium and silver. In this way a mesh gets deposited on the stamp. Later, this stamp is placed on a plastic or glass plate. Then the sacrificial layer is etched away and the pattern is deposited on the glass layer. The size of the material can be increased by improving the stamp surface area and these stamp fabricated patterns have better optical characteristics.
Now, the most time consuming thing in this method is making the moulds for the stamps precisely. Once the mould is ready, any number of reusable stamps can be manufactured for the printing of metamaterial sheets. It might take a few more years for making this technology commercial. Let’s hope that this technology can make Harry Potter-like invisibility cloaks.
