Self healing carbon

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xena
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by xena

My wife works for the government in innovations and she was at the at the Royal society exhibition in London.
One of the universities is working on and developing self healing carbon.
You basically hold the carbon together and it repairs or bonds together "self heals"
Its still in the early days but could you imagine. You would pretty much be able to make your own frame or bar/stem combo etc just by holding the carbon together. Amazing ...
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ihs0yz
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by ihs0yz

I think they'll only manage scratches... They're being developed for the aerospace industry where tiny dings heavily affects structural properties. Just how much effect exactly, I don't know. I think the principle is that when you get a surface defect on the carbon, some substance (fluid sort, I'm guessing) will be released to react and "heal".
I honestly don't think it's necessary for bikes. The types of stresses bike frames are being exposed to compared to aerospace applications is one thing and with all the frame "innovations and updates", is it seriously economical? People will break and fatigue carbons before being bothered with scratches.

BUT if you really do hold carbon together and it just bonds, imagine the disaster it would create with unintentional carbon contacts!

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xena
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by xena

I won't stick straight away it has to be held in place.
They are also doing this with plastic and other materials.
It is very early but my wife has seen it working. It bonds the separate pieces of material "carbon" together.
It will be interesting to see how all this develops. I doubt Bike manufacturers have much to worry about for quite a while.
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TMz
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by TMz

ihs0yz wrote:
BUT if you really do hold carbon together and it just bonds, imagine the disaster it would create with unintentional carbon contacts!


imagine leaning your bikes up outside the cafe and coming back to a franken-tandem....

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synchronicity
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by synchronicity

The critical thing though with smart materials is how long the self healing process actually takes.
Most carbon breakages happen in a fraction of a second, so it would have to be near instantaneous for it to improve strength in that way...
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davidalone
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by davidalone

I've studied self healing materials for use in biomedical applications. the ones I see mainly work by having a 'dual bbond 'structur of ionic and covalent bonding. you are unlikely to get back the exact same shape without some manipulation.

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HammerTime2
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by HammerTime2

TMz wrote:
ihs0yz wrote:
BUT if you really do hold carbon together and it just bonds, imagine the disaster it would create with unintentional carbon contacts!

imagine leaning your bikes up outside the cafe and coming back to a franken-tandem....
No problem, it will keep the The Freaks topic alive for years to come.

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