Here is Smith & Wesson's description of their Scandium guns.
Since 1852 Smith & Wesson has been a pioneer in handgun development. Through a century and a half the people at Smith & Wesson have never ceased in their quest for better designs, efficient calibers and improved materials. This ongoing effort was, and is, designed to deliver products that meet or exceed our customer's expectations.
In 1952, Smith & Wesson introduced the Airweight® revolvers featuring aluminum alloy frames and steel cylinders. Thirteen years later, Smith & Wesson produced the first stainless steel handgun, a technological advancement soon copied by others. In 1998, the steel cylinders of the Airweight's were replaced with titanium, resulting in AirLite Ti™ products that delivered Smith & Wesson performance in an even lighter revolver.
The latest step in this technological evolution is the introduction of products that use scandium to produce the strongest, lightest revolvers known, the AirLite Scâ„¢ Series from Smith & Wesson.
Scandium is an element that is located between calcium and titanium in the Periodic Table of Elements. The possibility of its existence was predicted in 1871 but it wasn't until 1879 the Swedish Chemist, Lars Nilson, actually discovered this mysterious element after refining it from the mineral Euxenite. The source of this mineral was Scandinavia so Nilson named the new element Scandium. Pure scandium is extremely difficult to refine. Its overall concentration in the Earth's crust is roughly 5 parts per million. That means 500 tons of material would have to be processed to obtain 5 pounds of scandium. The market price of scandium today is in excess of $7,000 a pound.
Russia discovered a major source of scandium in the Ukraine and started the original investigations of scandium-aluminum alloys in the early 1970's. What soon became apparent to the Russian Scientists was that when very small amounts of scandium were combined with some aluminum alloys, major changes took place. The results were alloys in which there were great increases in tensile strength and enhanced superplastic performance. This meant far greater fatigue resistance and pressure containment capability. These discoveries rapidly resulted in the use of these new, stronger, lightweight alloys in the MIG fighters and Russian missiles. With the fall of the Iron Curtain and the release of countries such as Ukraine from Communist control this unique element was made available to the world.
Fast forward to the late 1990's where Smith & Wesson had just released its first generation of AirLite titanium and aluminum alloy revolvers.
We were searching for stronger lightweight metal systems to continue the AirLite concept into Magnum calibers. It was during this time that company engineers obtained the first samples of scandium alloy and the first AirLite Scâ„¢ Magnum revolvers were built. The startling result was a small frame, under 12-ounce revolver that could safely fire full load 158 grain 357 Magnum rounds.
So how does a little scandium produce this remarkable increase in strength in aluminum alloys? Regular aluminum alloys have a grain structure that can be coarse and non-uniform, not a desirable property for yield strength. Even more problematic, this structure has a tendency to weaken over time through use. Adding a tiny amount of scandium to the alloy produces several results, the most important being a new alloy with a much finer grain structure which means greater strength and a reduction or elimination of long-term fatigue effects. The scandium alloy is a material that is lighter in weight than titanium or steel but with tensile strength and fatigue resistance that make it an ideal candidate of firearms fabrication.
What this means to firearms owners is the availability of strong, lightweight revolvers chambered in .357 S&W Magnum. When a scandium frame is combined with a titanium cylinder, the result is the lightest weight, full feature, full size revolver in .357 S&W Magnum available. And you get to choose from small frame five shot or medium frame seven shot revolvers conceived, designed and manufactured by Smith & Wesson, the world's leading name in revolvers.
Once again, Smith & Wesson has combined its tradition of quality craftsmanship with innovative design and high tech processes and materials to forge a new future.
