The problem with this “fabric” or interlocking matrix is that when compressed, it changes in dimension, making the overall structure larger or smaller based on the environment and the container. The true breakthrough would be if you could do this without changing the size of the matrix. Motorcycle spine protectors have been doing this for years based upon shock impacts and they act similar to a non-Newtonian fluid. The concept here should be similar in result, but the force active against the item should be controlled externally by the user and not passively by the environment…that’s where the breakthrough would occur. In this case, it is more like the plastic container is the stressed member and the internal structure is like a simulated truss that merely supports the outer shell.
Good concepts there. At the end of the video I was thinking if you ran strong string through each row of material, you can use a device to tighten or compress the materials on command with the turn of a dial. It would be similar to some shoe laces on sports gear. Turn the nob and all the laces tighten.
Also, to seal in vacuum and keep it sealed is not so easy for day to day applications... imagine you create a tent as she said. It's strong and durable. Until the plastic gets a crack...
@@danielmcsween884 thats how most things nowadays are discovered. You take some simple phenomenon and find other usages for this. If you consider the amount of knowledge, we have nowadadays, it is not something that weird. The point, where one human could learn most of the technic/creation knowledge, we crossed around the industrial revolution
I can imagine strings inside the meshes that can contract, giving the same contracting force the vacuum sealing does. Maybe a motor on one side with the strings through the structure. But this setup feels familiar that it mightve been done before and i just forgot the name..
@@colonelstriker2519 I know what you mean about it sounding familiar. I feel like I remember a childrens toy that uses the same principle, a limp animal that pieces together and truns rigid when you pull on a string.
Instead of using vacuum to bring the "chain links" together, i think it would be pretty cool to use electromagnets built into the material that you can switch on and off to stiffen the material. Anothet advantage of electrmagnets, is that you can control the stiffness infinitesimally by varyng the voltage and thus magnet strength and thus packing force.
As I see it most of the stiffness comes from the insulation material not the mesh. I don't think this would scale well by just using aluminium or steel for the mesh. In the "stiffen on demand" scenario would we need a vacuum pump attached to the mesh? The idea is cool but as I see it there are many challenges before it is usable in production.
@@JamesCarneval Great point. I guess I only commend about the vacuum stiffening because it was the only working prototype I saw. Those other hypothesized ideas indeed seem promising. I specially like the thermal one. If I remember correctly something similar is used on NASA's memory mesh tires.
I also used to print this kind of chainmail. So fun to touch it, it was one of my first resinprint projects. Btw. it's always good to call sth "smart material"
I'm a little stoned but how about a lightly resined ramen noodle body for a race car/hotrod. . Ramen is light and the fiberglass resin would bond the skin matrix together. You could shape it with a little steam.😁
Well yea. If you vacuum seal things that aren't a liquid; the package becomes more rigid. Great work there California institute of technology for discovering vacuum sealers
@@josephjoestar9269 I mean, did they tho, from what I can tell(I dont have much knowledge about this) it's been around sense 3d printed chainmail, and from people in the comments something like it, is in bike suspension
@@TakeApartLab I mean, the listed applications they are looking to explore with it is cool though. A lot of engineering is just using common ideas in novels ways.
first thing i thought was to use copper links w magnets on the vertices where each link connects so when u apply electric currents the eddy forces would cause it to contract or relax
@@CheekiScrubb I found it odd they just brushed over the idea of magnets in the video, and then went into way more thought about using a pulley type system 😳 I certainly don't have the knowledge and capability to explore the idea further, but I hope someone who does makes it happen. It seems entirely possible to me
I mean… the rigidity is primarily just a factor of the plastic from the vacuum seal increasing its surface area against the material though, yeah? I can't see any clear proof of the material _ITSELF_ doing anything - especially because they LITERALLY proved the same property exists with a bag of coffee grounds…
Indeed. Would this be as rigid in the vacuum of space? Would these shapes be able to support more weight than a equally thick bag of coffee-grounds? @2:23, could've shown a side by side comparison between coffee-grounds and this 'smart'-material and, I don't know, a bag filled with round beads as a control. Why didn't they think of this ..... Emergency casks are nowadays of the inflatable kind and become rigid due to overpressure in the air-chambers. Any engineer knows maintaining an over-pressure is much simpler than maintaining an under-pressure. What happens when the bag develops an air-leak?
Maybe retake your physics 101 class before you start trying to one up legit researchers.. They explained how the complex shapes create more spots of contact and a stronger material..
@@josephjoestar9269 …and the legit researchers are the ones who demonstrated the same property with a bag of coffee beans - hence the question, since there isn't any clear indication about how much is the effect of the material within the vacuum seal vs. the vacuum seal itself. This is because in a vacuum-sealed plastic, you're also dealing with friction against the plastic seal limiting flexibility.
@@schlierenguy it wouldn’t serve as a replacement for rebar. It would be more like glass fibre. I could see specific applications where parts of this reinforcement would be made stiff and other areas left lose to have controlled failure points.
The material as shown seems to only be useful under compression, and concrete doesn't need help with compression. Rebar and fiber is added to concrete to help with tension.
I think the key would be figuring out how to 3D print piezoelectric "muscles" between each link. you'd probably have to develop a manufacturing method for making a grid of tiny piezoelectric muscles and then 3D print the chainmail around those. Then maybe wrap the whole thing in neoprene and kevlar for protection of the muscles. Across a large sheet of chainmail, many muscles acting in tandem should produce a decent amount of overall force. Then, even if some of the system was damaged, it should still be effective. By measuring the drawn current, it might even be possible to monitor the integrity and potential of the system.
This could have so many functions. I could imagine it being used in many medical situations, like when trying to move someone who may have a broken neck or spine. Also, in archialogical sites, this could quickly be deployed around the sight, and harden in shape, allowing for protection from the elements.
"Smart materials, also called intelligent or responsive materials are designed materials that have one or more properties that can be significantly changed in a controlled fashion by external stimuli, such as stress, moisture, electric or magnetic fields, light, temperature, pH, or chemical compounds"
When any particle looses space between them they become solid, and air has maximum space in between them! That’s not new!! But the chain could be a good thig!
Yeah and they could have put the 5kg brick on top of the vacuumed coffee bag as well and it would withstand the force. I just think they don't know where to go with the chain exactly
They didn't say it was new, they said it was the inspiration for the project and explained how it gave them the idea for creating complex interlocking geometric shapes. Where's yall reading comprehension at
A full haptic suit for VR what makes you feel every punch and hit from its straining on your body in that particular spot? That's amazing we are very close to player one
You gotta you figure out an electromagnetic source of power for the right type of conductive material that could be turned on with the flip of a switch which would cause all of it to grasp together to stiffen it on command I personally think graphite would be perfect for this application
I remember there was a robot made by someone or some team over 10 years ago that figured this out. They put little balloons filled with coffee grounds at the end of a robot arm and sucked the air out to pick up any oddly shaped object they wanted it to and it worked very well IIRC.
I wrote scifi short stories with a similar material, used to make uniforms. Under normal air pressure, it relaxed and "breathed", but if the pressure on the exterior dropped below a threshold, it closed the weave and interlocked into nearly airtight semi-rigid armor. Your uniform, with triggering force fields for helmet and gauntlets, becomes an emergency spacesuit. Many things that were sci-fi yesterday become everyday today. Like the waterbed -- "invented" by Robert Heinlein as an acceleration couch in "Double Star", or a medical bed in "Stranger in a Strange Land".
As and engineer I often forget how the average person doesn't fully understand what they are seeing. It seems that most people don't understand the difference between the plastic of a vacuum packed object supporting a load vs a rigid structure within a vacuum packed back supporting a load. While watching this I was thinking magnetics as well. BMW came out with a "smart fluid" for shock absorbers that could change viscosity through electromagnetic properties. This has unlimited potential for so many applications.
For making fabric you can use nitinol which has property of going back to its original shape when heated, by making it with a certain shape and liking them together and when they are heated they will try to go back to original form but because of interlinking they can't do rather they'll get stiff. And the material is strong so it's better and can be used. It's just an idea. Hope it helps
Use thermal expansion /contraction. Heat it up (loose) cool it down. (Stiff) metals expand and contract alot and this is used to interference fit various components together, high tolerances required tho
With small enough particles and a control system, this could be really cool! I remember when Nolan was doing research for Batman Begins, he came across body armors made of MR fluid and non-newtonian fluids. Basically, they would be loose and flexible under ordinary circumstances, but could become stiff and rigid if needed. Non-newtonian armor that stiffens on impact or under pressure made it into news reports and documentaries and the like before running into some engineering issues, but I never heard anything more about the electrically controlled MR armor. Maybe this could be a successor or replacement?
dude, I was searching for smartcape and came across this video. whole time i was like how "could batman use this". Like doing a cape shield or turning it into a ramp to deflect a motor cycle coming at him thing.
The principle is that something that can flow like a liquid can behave like a solid in different circumstances. Here it's compression that allows that change from a pourable state to a rigid state. The vaccum is just a means to achieve it. You could be on a beach and allow sand to run between your fingers, but if you punch the sand instead it doesn't behave n the same way.
I wish i worked in a place that made stuff like this. I have so many idea's but no way to creat them. And I see so many different ways to use things that are already in existence. I'm too creative to be stuck in my own head.
Have you thought of using a 3d printer? You could get together with like minded people near you and experiment with different materials and shapes. There is nothing stopping you from starting your own company or your own "MAKE" or maker organization geared specifically for creating new technologies or improving existing industrial techniques. Don't limit yourself. You don't have to be someone's employee. You can do this own your own. The idea man is more important than the engineer with a doctorate. Creativity is what drives innovation, not the outdated institutions currently in place. Crowd 9thsourcing or open source technology can be just as good if not better and beneficial than the work of single corporations. I'm also a fellow creative. Let me know if you want a few hints or info on how or where to get started. I have many sources of unusual and unorthodox information at my disposal and depending on what your point of view, I may be able to help.
This definitely holds a lot of potential, maybe not immediately useful (like the invention of Laser found use much later)! Very innovative design none the less!
Are you stupid? This is basic as basic gets... compressing materials to a more dense material is as old as time.. some of yall are so stupid its sickening
While reinventing the wheel can be fun... Might be better to get working on those bridges with what we have NOW instead of later.... Since they keep falling apart.
The solution would be to make a single chain of each and weave those chains (like threads). To create stiffness in any one section or part you TWIST the thread (chain) and it stiffens in its current position. The object/fabric would not change dimensions only orientation. The twist would lock adjacent elements in the thread preventing further movement and allow it to be load bearing. You could do a similar with with these pnumatic snake robots. They could weave themselves into a structure or around a human and become a scaffold.
This is a great idea...I see having something un the car that you can press a button on and it stiffens so you can use it to get out of a ditch or if your car gets stuck in sand or mud where you need to place something under the tire to get the vehicle out... this has a lot of practicle applications including storage imagine boxes you press a button and this fabric turns into a box you can use they would be easy to store and reuseable...I'd like to see what they ultimately decide this is going to be used for but I see it being utilized in almost any industry...
Interesting this reminds me of certain types of chain if you twist them then they can become ridgid intersting concept, perhaps it can be paired with numatic tube robots?
Lentils are still convex shapes. The whole point of this was to see if taking it a step further and using interlocked shapes (which hence have more points of contact) could significantly improve the stiffness of the structure
I think they are going for a wearable form of oobleck , denser than lead on impact yet soft and form fitting during active wear. Sounds like super suit material if you think a bit. But yeah, a little bit more research will be needed, it could all start from vacuum sealed coffee and end with a super suit!
I can imagine small electromagnets throughout the fabric used to pull them together, maybe even with feromagnetic matereal making it possible to permanentaly create strong structures from a fabric
This is an idea that come out of a bong session. It's an idea for sure.... i would of worked abit more into it before talking about shrink wrapping material to make a bridge...?
What are you, 10? Why would you take off body armor to turn it into a shield, when you can harden it and shield your body while you wear it and have both hands for defense and attack.
Because the impact from a 50BMG will probably kill you even without penetration, but if there is a lot of space for the shield to absorb the impact, you might have a better chance.
@@gabrielandradeferraz386 if the shield doesnt protect your body form a 50 cal, holding it out in front of you with your weak ass wrist holding it isnt going to stop it and its going to blow right through that shield. if it doesnt break the shield then the shield would absorb all the force dumped into it by the 50 cal round and become its own projectile and kill you. if it can stop a 50 cal at arms length it can stop one on your body. if your wrist and arm can take a hit from a 50cal and not take damage from the impact force alone, then it would also work just fine on your body. i like how people want to always jump to extremes to try and prove a point and end up looking dumb as shit. that goes for Unknown HNTR too.
If made out of metal. Apply a electro magnet to the male and then you could theoretically do the same thing on command turn it off and on on command. This can give you ways to do bridges or structures or even some kind of armor for immediate protection when needed
