What Ever Happened to Scandium Bike Frames?

In the early 2000's "Scandium" was the hot frame material for serious racers. Now you have to look at one of the weirdo brands in the dark edges of internet shopping to find one. This article explores why. 

First, here's some background:

In Ukrainian uranium mines, workers often pull out a soft, dull grey metal along with the radioactive nuclear bomb fuel they're looking for. This resource-on-the-side is scandium, and during the Cold War USSR metallurgists found out that if you blend a little bit of that dull metal into a vat of molten aluminum, the resulting alloy is strong enough to be pounded into the shape of a rocket, then blasted through five feet of ice by a nuclear submarine.

When the USSR fell, a Canadian company named Ashurst Technology (which has since died) bought the knowledge and infrastructure for scandium usage from their Ukrainian partners, then licensed it off to Easton Sports. Easton, manufacturer of aluminum bike frame tubes, began using the technology to make lighter, stronger tube sets than anyone else on the market.

Scandium works by convincing aluminum molecules to restructure themselves. When aluminum is smelted it hardens into microscopic grains that fit together to make a solid architecture. Scandium makes those grains smaller, among other things, which allows them to fit closer together for a denser, stronger overall structure.

Scandium also interrupts melted aluminum crystalizing at a molecular level when the metal cools. This means that the properties of the alloy are less likely to be affected by heat-treatment and welding, so a scandium-infused aluminum alloy is less likely to crack while cooling. This is especially valuable in high-strength aluminum, like 7005 alloy. Traditionally, 7005 alloys make light, strong, forged or CNC machined bicycle components, but can't be welded because they weaken when they melt. By adding scandium to the tube or to the filler between welded tubes, melted 7005 aluminum becomes usable in welded components, like frames.

 So, at a chemical level, aluminum alloys infused with scandium (less than 0.5% by volume) are stronger and more weldable than scandium-free alloys. Why don't we use it in every bike component then?

Where did scandium go? 

Scandium is expensive. There aren't a lot of scandium importers and miners, and the few that exist charge a premium. That means only manufacturers who specialize in light-weight, high quality parts use it, and usually only for racing components. Also, for a long time Easton Sports was the only manufacturer with the proprietary technology to make scandium tubing. This led to a counterfeit market, which then led to scandium getting some bad press when the fake frames cracked or busted:

It's the same story with carbon composites, which got a bad name in the early years when the knock-off Cervelos and Pinarellos that people bought of Alibaba.com started un-bonding.  However, with carbon composites the industry was prepared to launch advertising campaigns to counter the bad media. Because scandium is really just dressed up aluminum (hence the term "SCAMdium"), the industry figured it would be better to bury any knowledge of the metal, except in a few cases. 

Knowing that, it's fair to say that scandium never did go away. Any time you ride a high-quality aluminum racing frame made of welded 7005 series aluminum, you're probably riding on a little scandium. A lot of 6061 grade aluminums use scandium too. In fact, the bicycle industry is one of the biggest scandium markets, still. 

So scandium never did go away, it just got un-branded. 

One of my favorite production frames of all time, the Salsa Podio, was made of aluminum/scandium/magnesium/mystery-metal alloy. I think the frame and fork sold for less than $600, but weighed as much as the $2000 carbon Trek Madone frame, and the ride quality was equal or better. 

Currently, there are a handful of brands that still market their frames as being "made of scandium." But really, it's more common than the marketers let on. 

Like this article? Well I have an entire series on how to build a bicycle frame and fork. Want to learn more about bicycle marketing tricks and how price signaling works? Check out this post. But if you want to read something fun that loosely covers the bike industry in Chicago, read this.