'Star Trek-style' transparent aluminium that can stop bullets created

London, Jan 19 (ANI): Transparent aluminium, the fantastically strong material mentioned in 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home' by Enterprise engineer Mr Scott, may be coming closer to reality.

While scientists have not figured out a way of making metallic aluminium transparent, they have developed a transparent aluminium-based ceramic that is almost as strong.

The material, aluminium oxynitride, known as AION, is four times harder than fused silica glass, 85 per cent as hard as sapphire and stable up to a temperature of 1,200C.

At 1.6in thick it is strong enough to stop .50 calibre bullets, which can easily penetrate more than twice that thickness of conventional laminated glass armour.

And, of course, you can see through it, making it sound incredibly similar to the stuff peddled by the Enterprise engineer, the Daily Mail reported.

To make the material, aluminium oxynitride powder is packed into a rubber mould in the rough shape of the part wanted.

In a tank of hydraulic fluid, the mould is compressed to 15,000psi - a procedure known as isostatic pressing - until the powder is mashed into a grainy 'green body'.

This grainy structure is then fused by heating at 2,000C for several days. The fused substance is cloudy, but can be given an optically clear finish by mechanical polishing.

The resulting material is expensive, and so is generally only used for high-performance applications, especially in the military.

Surmet Corporation in Massachusetts manufactures it under the brand name ALON for use in armoured windows, lenses for battlefield optics, and 'seeker domes', the clear round windows covering the sensors on missiles. (ANI)