Civil Engineering

Metal 10,000x More Resistant to Fatigue

Researchers from China have made resistant metal, and it could revolutionize space

By: Liam Daquioag, Journalist

May 28, 2025

Research in China has led us to a type of metal that can hold up against fatigue. A lot.

Metal Fatigue

Metal will eventually break after repeated wear and tear. This is called metal fatigue. It’s unfortunately hard to spot because it happens with very low force.

Metal fatigue is a big problem. That’s when the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Metal Research comes in.

Creating The Metal

PhD and professor Lei Lu, and a Georgia professor transformed SAE 304, (a very common type of metal alloy) and gave it an uneven microstructure. With this process, they now had a metal that was both strong and resistant.

A few properties of the new metal:

Handles more than 2x the force until it is permanently deformed, compared to other alloys.
10,000x more times resistant to metal fatigue

“The skeletal structure is just one three-hundredth the diameter of a human hair, but it plays a significant role when bearing pressure.” -Lei Lu

The Real World

The researchers believe it could be used for aerospace, where resistance to fatigue is absolutely critical. Lei Lu, who was part of the research, says it had other applications, like engine parts.