The armor is not simply a metal suit; in fact, a typical Iron Man armor will have no actual rigid parts, all of them being collapsible in their inactive state. Instead, the suit consists of approximately two million grain-of-sand-sized discrete units, which are shaped to have as large a surface as possible to optimize their effectiveness. The basis of Iron Man’s structural integrity is namely the powerful force field which permeates the armor’s “cells”, as well as the whole. Each of the “cells” is a tiny unit in its own right, contributing energy and computing power to the entire armor; this is also why the suit can remain functional even having sustained considerable damage: the basic principle of the suit is holistic (each part contains the whole, as it were). Despite the immense strength and durability of the armor, it is collapsible on the microscopic level, the cells “folding” in on themselves to take up a smaller volume, like a three-dimensional accordion pleat. Needless to say, the construction of even a single “cell” would take an enormous amount of time: automated construction is a must. For example, to attain molecular perfection in the construction of extremely small parts in the separate “cells”, specialized bacteria are deployed – the bacteria consume minute amounts of specific metals, then arrange themselves on pre-tagged areas on the “chip wafer”, then die, leaving a very small amount of iron, or gold, or gallium-arsenide. This method allows great precision in determining the thickness of circuitry. While Tony Stark designs every aspect of the armor, production is practically entirely automated.
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