Using EMP To Punch Holes In Steel

angrytuna writes "The Economist is running a story about a group of researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Tools and Forming Technology in Chemnitz, Germany, who've found a way to use an EMP device to shape and punch holes through steel. The process enjoys advantages over both lasers, which take more time to bore the hole (0.2 vs. 1.4 seconds), and by metal presses, which can leave burrs that must be removed by hand."

Longevity?

[afidel]

The site the wear on machine dies as a factor, but what's the expected number of discharges that these super-capacitors can be expected to survive, the coils?

Re:What if EMP leaks out of the factory?

[digitalunity]

Nonsense. The human body has an average resistance of 300-1000 ohms. Not great, but far weaker than modern electrical insulation.

Evidence has been shown that some frequencies in the EM spectrum indeed do cause damage to DNA and in some cases that damage is propagated to future divisions of that cell, meaning the damage is permanent.

From an industrial point of view, this is very interesting. Laser cutter machines are expensive to purchase, but upkeep isn't high and they are very versatile. A machine like this doesn't seem to have the versatility of a laser and might even consume more power. Punches are very fast but manual deburring is expensive.

I noticed in the article they said this works based on magnetic repulsion, and also that it works on stainless steels. I'm curious if this works on the largely non-magnetic 300 series SS.

Water jet?

[sunderland56]

Everyone I know in the metal manufacturing field is currently using water jet technology to cut holes. Easier, cheaper, and neater than lasers; and cuts any arbitrary shape, unlike a die punch. And - very importantly - safe for the operator.

So how come no comparison in TFA with water jet? EMP doesn't sound like it can do intricate shapes, and they're only going through very thin steel. Why replace a proven inexpensive technology with a new inferior one?

Re:Weapon?

[Dr. Spork]

I'm wondering just how much a strong magnetic field like this could accelerate a bullet-like metal object.

Re:Weapon?

[mysidia]

How about disabling their vehicle, or punching a hole in their tank to facilitate an ambush or use of other weapons?

Re:Weapon?

[khallow]

To add something new to what the other repliers have said, human body is mostly transparent to EMP. It's not mostly transparent to bullets, knives, and a variety of other lethal tools. The EMP punch wouldn't add anything new to the huge list of ways to deliberately kill people.

Re:What if EMP leaks out of the factory?

[UCSCTek]

"urine streams do not tend to break apart"

Interestingly enough, I have done the appropriate experiment to really determine whether that is true. I was in a bathroom where a strobe light was running (at a science-themed party, no less), and by tuning its frequency, I could get a good view of the nature of my urine stream. Initially it is continuous, but it breaks up into small droplets fairly quickly--perhaps after a foot or so. With the strobe set correctly, the droplets appear almost stationary.

Re:What if EMP leaks out of the factory?

[BlueStrat]

humans can not be punched with the EMP punch at present energy levels.

There, weaponized that for you.

Speaking of weapons, the tool sounds like it should appear in the beam-weapons list for a MechWarrior 4/Mercs add-on pack under "lostech weapons". Maybe another hardpoint "can-opener" weapon choice to compliment the short-ranged-but-powerful "Assault Laser" (IIRC).

An EMP device that would cut through metals would not do much to a human. It's mainly a matter of energy absorption. For a human-killer, it loses in two ways. The frequency of the EMP energy needed to resonate in metals efficiently enough to punch a hole is far different than the frequency that would best transfer energy to a human body. Even if one were to find the overall best frequency, the human body is a poor inductor as well as conductor. Not only would the weapon need huge amounts of energy, it would be *extremely* short-ranged.

What it *might* conceivably be useful for is as part of a bunker-buster type weapon to penetrate extremely thick armor after a shaped charge ahead of it clears possible rock & debris. It could prove more useful than conventional shaped-charge, formed-rod penetration system when the target has very thick armor.

The EMP punch system, if used as an armor-piercing system, has the potential to time the length & frequency of the pulse, the shape of the pulse, pulse strength, as well as possibly firing two rapid pulses, enabling it to efficiently penetrate extreme armor thicknesses and be optimized on-the-fly to differing armor types, since pulse frequency, strength, number, and shape are all variables that conceivably be set by a human before launch, or by a targeting computer that uses the weapons' sensors to automatically adjust it up to last-second for best results.

All this fantasy of course assumes having the ability to store sufficient energy onboard to operate it while being small & light enough to be practical. We ain't there, yet.

Strat