"materials scientists have just created alumina-based glass. have to imagine regular rust will go away."
Heh. You don't need space age materials to get rid of rust. Rust is created when oxygen combines with iron. Steel has iron in it, so steel rusts. But aluminum does not have iron in it. Aluminum oxidizes and will get a white powdery coating on it, but it's not at all like steel rusting. :-)
Of course Aluminum is not very strong, so you might not want to use it for crates. But then, why would you want to use any metal at all for a crate? Metal is heavy, and some kinds rust or oxidize, and it condustcs electricity. Doesn't seem a very good choice. So why not plastic?
Well steel is stronger than plastic. So I suppose we couldn't use it for very large shipping crates. But I imagine that one day we will have a space age plastic that...
Oops, went right back to the space age stuff didn't I. :-)
I'm sure we have perfectly good materials for making crates that don't rust, like Titanium, and/or are light... like, perhaps, carbon fiber. But these things are expensive, and we tend to make stuff from the cheapest materials available. :-)
Heh. You don't need space age materials to get rid of rust. Rust is created when oxygen combines with iron. Steel has iron in it, so steel rusts. But aluminum does not have iron in it. Aluminum oxidizes and will get a white powdery coating on it, but it's not at all like steel rusting. :-)
Of course Aluminum is not very strong, so you might not want to use it for crates. But then, why would you want to use any metal at all for a crate? Metal is heavy, and some kinds rust or oxidize, and it condustcs electricity. Doesn't seem a very good choice. So why not plastic?
Well steel is stronger than plastic. So I suppose we couldn't use it for very large shipping crates. But I imagine that one day we will have a space age plastic that...
Oops, went right back to the space age stuff didn't I. :-)
I'm sure we have perfectly good materials for making crates that don't rust, like Titanium, and/or are light... like, perhaps, carbon fiber. But these things are expensive, and we tend to make stuff from the cheapest materials available. :-)