Shaving dulls sharpest razors-explains extensively a team of MIT researchers. Ever imagined that a seemingly simple act of shaving could have a lot of underlying science? And an extremely delicate human hair has a withering effect on these steel blades. Let’s know more about it.
Shaving dulls sharpest razors-Human hair and steel blade:
A human hair is nearly 50 times softer than any steel razor one can imagine. And this becomes intriguing for everyone including this team of researchers, as to how something as soft as a human hair can wither away a honed razor. So, finally, they decided to get to the bottom of how shaving dulls sharpest razors.
Microstructure of razors
- The dulling out of the edges of razors and blades is more complex a process than their simple deterioration with time. Now one of the significant players in the entire withering process is the microstructure of razor’s edge. This microscopic structure is non-uniform or heterogeneous and thus contributes towards developing cracks on its surface. Once such fissures begin to develop, they only grow into bigger ones.
- Another important factor is the angle at which the cut is made to the hair strand. The research’s topic felt simple but it drives engineers towards building highly durable razors. The team of researchers had Tasan, Gianluca Roscioli, and Seyedeh Mohadeseh Taheri Mousavi onboard. And their research found a spot in the journal “Science”. Now Tasan and his group, in particular, were keenly involved in studying this very microstructure of razors to study the related materialistic and metallurgical behavior of the same.
The real experiment:
Well, every study has its base in real and rigorous experiments. In this case, Roscioli did undergo a few initial experiments and himself shaved his facial hair. He snapped some images with the help of an SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) and got a zoomed view of the edges of razors. And got to see the insights of the surface and also see the crack-developments. An important finding here was that there were cracks but not uniformly present, but only at interaction places of the hair and razors. The quest to know how shaving dulls sharpest razors thus kept fueling their experiment.
Another experiment:
In another experiment, Roscioli used a variety of hair samples from his colleagues and also included his own. He created a miniature mechanical experiment set up to ape the manual process of shaving in mechanically administered settings. Here, the set-up had two fasteners that held razor and hair strands at different angles. And the entire set up was comparable to the size of SEM and would fit in it comfortably. This helped Roscioli get fine images to demystify what goes on a razor’s edge. Also interestingly enough for Roscioli, the relationship between hair thickness, cutting angle, and the chipping of razors did not depend on the thickness of hair.
Simulation:
To further understand the process of how shaving dulls the sharpest razors, the researchers used simulation methodology to study the development of cracks. They often changed parameters like angle at which cut was made, cutting force’s direction and the material structure of the razor to study the interdependence.
Conditions:
Now the main conditions under which the development of chips accelerated were mainly three. The first is the angle i.e. that angle at which the blade advances towards the hair strand. While the second being the non-uniform composition of the blade and the third is the encountering of a hair strand with the razor’s edge at a fragile point. The team used the term, “stress intensification” to explain the underlying reason for the blade’s failure. Stress intensification means that the stress exerted on the material of the blade increases manifold if it develops some micro-cracks in the initial stage itself. And these cracks further develop into bigger chips.
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Shaving dulls sharpest razors-New possibility for future:
Researchers intend to achieve better homogeneity of the blade’s steel as the heterogeneity seems a major factor that contributes to withering of blades. Thus patenting their research work, these researchers can’t wait to get started to produce long-lasting blades.
