Oct 03 2006

Radical Innovation: Self-Healing Material

Posted by Geezer as Cool Stuff, Engineering, Gadgets, Military, Science

self-healing material At Gadzooki, the thing that drives us the most is excitement about future technology. Sure gadgets are nice, and we love our tech, but deep down, we love innovation and thinking about the future.

Just the other day I encountered one of those few stories that bring me to say “Hey, that just might change our future in radical ways.”

NewScientist reports on a self-healing material that is able to identify the exact location of damage with exquisitely high-resolution. The material uses epoxy sealant to make any minor repairs - think about small cuts on your skin (as opposed to gashes to your tendons). One could imagine this material being used to immediately repair things as diverse as the tires on your car, the pipes in your house or even leaks in the roof.

The epoxy in this self-healing material is located just below the outer polymer surface (the equivalent of a machine’s epidermis). When the polymer surface is penetrated, the epoxy flows into any damage that might occur.

What makes this material even more amazing is the fact that is has embedded circuitry that allows human beings to pinpoint damage that the automated epoxy system can’t fix. Thing about how useful that could be. Say that there is a leak somewhere in your home piping system that no one can locate: a piping system designed with this material would be able to help identify the precise location.

And that just scratches the surface.

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2 Responses

Mr Butterscotch
03|Oct|2006

That IS impressive technology. I wonder how long it’ll be before it makes it into the first consumer item?
Jackzooki
03|Oct|2006

“And that just scratches the surface.”

Touché!

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