LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Iridium
built 239 days ago
The “secret” of the Iridium IX spark plug is its laser-welded electrode made of iridium. Thanks to its exceptional thin diameter of 0.6 mm it bundles ignition voltage... improving combustion at any speed. The engine runs smoothly, the motorcycle accelerates faster. Also, the high-tech metal iridium keeps the distance between the electrodes completely stable, thus preventing the engine from backfiring.
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Iridium is a "platinum-group" metallic element that is very uncommon in the earth's crust. The platinum-group metals include platinum, iridium, palladium, rhodium, rhenium, and osmium. On the Periodic Table, these metals are ... in the same columns as the "Group 8" elements, which include iron, nickel, and cobalt. Group 8 elements all have a natural chemical affinity for each other, and therefore they tend to collect together in nature. The greatest concentration of iron on Earth is at its core. This is also where the greatest concentration of Earth's iridium resides.
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The former Iridium provided phones from two vendors, Kyocera and Motorola. Neither still manufacture these handsets. Kyocera phone models SS-66K and SD-66K are no longer in production but still available in the second-hand and surplus market. The Motorola phone 9500 is a design from the first commercial phase of Iridium, whereas the current 9505A model is the most current version of the handset and the 9522A is the most current version of the OEM L-Band Transceiver module designed for integration into specific applications. The 9505A phone is functionally identical to the 9505 but is no longer manufactured by Motorola and contains a slightly different set of components.
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Iridium expects to achieve initial deployment for U.S. Department of Defense users by the fourth quarter 2005. Iridium will launch to homeland security and commercial customers in 2006, focusing on public safety, border patrol, customs, forestry, oil and gas, fishing and mining applications. Iridium anticipates needs in the area of command and control, logistics, support, position reporting, observation and other critical information relay beyond line-of-sight.
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Iridium is not attacked by any of the acids nor by aqua regia, but is attacked by molten salts, such as NaCl and NaCN. The specific gravity of iridium is to osmium's specific gravity. Calculations of the densities of iridium and osmium from the space lattices give values of 22.65 and 22.61 g/cm^3, respectively. These values may be more reliable than actual physical measurements for determining which element is heavier.
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Iridium is found in alluvial deposits alloyed with platinum as platiniridium and with osmium as osmiridium. Iridium is used chiefly as an alloying material for platinum; the alloy, which contains about 10 percent iridium, is much harder than pure platinum. Platinum-iridium alloys containing larger percentages of iridium are used in making precision instruments, surgical tools, pen points, and standard weights and lengths.
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