Little Known, Small Scale Uses of Salt

In a series of blogposts, I will describe some little know smaller scale uses of salt:

Salt Used for Geo-Engineering  

In a recent post, “Salt in ancient customs – cruz de sal”,

Salt in Ancient Customs – Cruz de Sal

I wrote about the ancient Spanish custom to avoid hailstorms by spreading salt in the form of a cross. A former colleague commented, and made me aware that salt is actually used in science-based geo-engineering.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7015385629966364672?commentUrn=urn%3Ali%3Acomment%3A%28activity%3A7015385629966364672%2C7015599866416357376%29

Salt as a Construction Material

In early 2023, Arch Daily, an architecture website wrote “Could Salt Be a Material of the Future? Innovating with Crystallised Salt Panels”. The article reviews historic and current uses of salt as a construction material, and examines the potential in this segment. https://www.archdaily.com/994769/could-salt-be-a-material-of-the-future-innovating-with-crystallized-salt-panels. In early 2023 the book “3D printing for Construction with Alternative Materials” was published, and one of the chapters is on 3D print with salt. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-09319-7_5

Salt Molds for Investment Casting

The use of salt molds is not new. It is known and developed since the end of the 20th century, especially in the field of gravity and low pressure die casting off high precision parts. The advantage of salt molds are high mechanical and thermal stability, and smooth surfaces. The salt mold easily dissolves without residue, is environmentally friendly and recyclable. In early 2022, researcher from ETH in Zurich published an article on “Light-Based Printing of Leachable Salt Molds for Facile Shaping of Complex Structures” https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adma.202203878 The article describes 3D printing of salt molds as a universal, cost-effective, and sustainable new manufacturing method.