self-mending

[Arrow]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bho1-R5heFc

00:59

"rubber can heal itself after being cut"

[racine]

have heard of this, my first thought was when will it be available for mouldmaking.

[Merlion]

The smart rubber material is described in this article from the New Scientist magazine. Fritchie may like to read the further details in the link below.

Smart rubber promises self-mending products (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13354)

20 Feb 2008. Self-healing rubber that binds back together after being snapped or punctured could pave the way for self-healing shoes, fan belts, washing-up gloves and more.

"You can feel the material mending itself when you hold the fractured sides together," inventor Ludwik Leibler told New Scientist. "It's a very strange feeling."

When the material melds together again, it has just as much strength as it had before, says Leibler, a polymer chemist at the Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution (ESPCI) in Paris, France. See the material self-healing in the video top right.

The material could eventually make it a cinch to repair holes in shoes, snapped fan belts and punctured kitchen gloves. It might also make strange new products possible – for instance bags that can be ripped open and then resealed. "You don't need a zip when you can make a resealable hole in it," Leibler says. ...

The material is synthesised from fatty acids and urea, which are cheap and renewable. ....

Along with the project's sponsor – French chemicals company Arkema – the ESPCI team hopes to improve the self-healing material before deciding upon its first application. They expect to create a whole spectrum of properties.

"They have done a fantastic job making this material," says Tony Ryan, a polymer expert at the University of Sheffield in the UK. "Someone is going to make a lot of money out of this – and I hope it is them. I certainly hope they have patented it."