Metal miners are constantly looking over their shoulders for the men (or women) who may come up with still another substitute for metals in the world’s markets. Their apprehension is not without reason. Witness the development of fibreoptics to replace copper conductors, the increasing use of plastics in a myriad of formerly all-metal or nearly all-metal consumer products, the automobile being one of the foremost among them.
The Japanese, for instance, were not too long ago reported to be making quite a bit of progress in developing a largely-plastic car engine. While we looked on that one with a pretty skeptic eye, the feeling of disbelief was also tinged with a sense of uneasiness.
Now it appears that right here in Canada (the city of Kingston, Ont., to be exact) a small company has designed and is actually producing a near-plastic engine, a 1.5-hp unit used in power lawnmowers. Much of it is still metal, of course, as in the cylinder head, piston and bearings, etc., but the crankshaft, connecting rod and housing, are reported to be pure thermal plastic material.
Not a serious immediate threat to metals, maybe, but certainly indicative of a disturbing trend. It’s a good thing the mining industry, through such bodies as the Nickel Development Institute, is working hard on research and development to expand metals use in world markets.
Free trade with the U.S. for instance, may very well guarantee continued access of Canadian metals and minerals to that huge market, but we also want some sense of certainty that that market is not going to shrink unduly because of metals substitution.
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