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Researchers Develop Self-Healing Plastic

Posted by kdawson on from the you're-terminated dept.

schliz writes "Arizona State researchers have been working on a 'self-healing' polymer that uses a fibre optic 'nervous system' to detect and fix cracks. The system recovers up to 96 percent of an object's original strength in laboratory tests. It could find use in 'large-scale composite structures for which human intervention would be difficult,' such as wind turbines, satellites, aircraft, or the Mars Rover."

71 comments

  1. I for one by anonymousNR · · Score: 2, Funny

    welcome our self-healing plastic overlords

    --
    -- It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. -- Aristotle
    1. Re:I for one by circletimessquare · · Score: 1, Funny

      I for one reject and spit on our ancient meme spouting underlords

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    2. Re:I for one by spazdor · · Score: 2

      I for one welcome everyone dogpiling onto the first post to make fun of the people making fun of the people making fun.

      --
      DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
    3. Re:I for one by circletimessquare · · Score: 1

      I for one, get the second I half off

      --
      intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    4. Re:I for one by dakameleon · · Score: 1

      I, for one, love the fact that this is modded "redundant".

      --
      Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
  2. All we need now by i+ate+my+neighbour · · Score: 1

    is self replicating machines built with self healing material.

    1. Re:All we need now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Hell, we *are* "self replicating machines built with self healing material".

    2. Re:All we need now by spazdor · · Score: 2

      You've got one. It is the device between your keyboard and your chair.

      --
      DRM: Terminator crops for your mind!
    3. Re:All we need now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Self healing perhaps but I would not bet anything on the replicating part.

    4. Re:All we need now by ColdWetDog · · Score: 1

      Self healing perhaps but I would not bet anything on the replicating part.

      Parthenogenesis hasn't been shown to work in anything more advanced than a frog, but there is hope yet.

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    5. Re:All we need now by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Self healing perhaps but I would not bet anything on the replicating part.

      Parthenogenesis hasn't been shown to work in anything more advanced than a frog,

      Frogs are very advanced. One could argue that they're more "advanced" than humans (in terms of anatomical specialisation).

      Try saying what you (probably) mean for a change.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    6. Re:All we need now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, /. and all that....

    7. Re:All we need now by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      my skin regenerates my fingernails certainly do as well that seems to me to be replicating

  3. Tagged with Terminator imagery by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Guess they are trying to head the "And this was how Skynet was created." jokes off at the pass.

  4. Just a thought... roadways? by daemonhunter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I'm sure someone's already working on a patent for this, but what would stop us from replacing sections of road with textured, self-healing plastic?
    We still have too little information on the plastic at hand, but it could hopefully reduce Transit Dept. maintenance costs worldwide.

    1. Re:Just a thought... roadways? by hedwards · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Probably not, at least not on the surface. The problem is that a significant portion of the wear and tear is from the surface rubbing off. It might help some, but doubtful that it would be enough to make it worthwhile.

    2. Re:Just a thought... roadways? by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 1

      Plastics suck for road material. They are too soft, break down from the weather and UV, salts, sand, gravel will erode it.

      We use concrete, asphalt and gravel for a reason, the price and durability are right.

      Plus for damage like cracks and gouges, it's not magic, there will still have to be materials brought in

    3. Re:Just a thought... roadways? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not rubbing off, spalling off. Unless someone's doing peel-outs with carbide-tipped studded tires...

    4. Re:Just a thought... roadways? by RsG · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Also, a fair bit of the issue is cost per mile.

      We could build, right now, with modern technology, roads that could go decades or longer between repaving or other maintenance. No self-healing wonderplastic required; modern engineering and existing materials are up to the task. Wouldn't last forever, but if you only need to make repairs every eighty odd years, that's more than good enough. It might even been economical in the very, very long run.

      The reason we don't do this is money. Simple asphalt and gravel, with sporadic repairs and repaving every decade or so is "good enough". Long term savings that would take most of a human lifespan to pay off aren't attractive to anybody in a position to implement them, for obvious reasons.

      --
      Erotic is when you use a feather. Exotic is when you use the whole chicken.
    5. Re:Just a thought... roadways? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The cost of using even "flexible" concrete that can withstand several time compression before cracking is many times higher than standard concrete. It has been tested. The issue is that surface under the road is not fixed in place as one may think, being ignorant of surface dynamics, but moves slightly (or a lot, very quickly, during an earthquake), especially in areas with freeze/thaw conditions. Even digging down five feet to build a more better roadbed doesn't prevent cracking over time.

    6. Re:Just a thought... roadways? by Bozdune · · Score: 1

      Sonny Corleone will stop you from replacing sections of road with textured, self-healing plastic. By using a baseball bat on your kneecaps.

    7. Re:Just a thought... roadways? by Poorcku · · Score: 1

      you are thinking big. i was thinking more in the lines of scratches on my android screen. cool.

      --
      I take my children to see Madonna(..), but I never for once ever thought I was in the same business.Chris Rea.
    8. Re:Just a thought... roadways? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The cost for this material would be through the roof. The plastic isn't especially expensive but that's a lot of fiber-optic cable along with the need for substations every so often to regenerate the laser intensity and the cost of the electricity. If cost wasn't an issue in building material we would just cover our roads with diamond.

    9. Re:Just a thought... roadways? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I am an American living in Europe and many of the roads in this country are made of cobblestones. They don't wear down easily and it's easy to replace very specific areas of the road instead of tearing it all up.

      Sometimes old tech is better than new tech.

    10. Re:Just a thought... roadways? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ding ding ding! We have a winner! It's called graft, not to mention occasional kickbacks. It's why many roads in the U.S. are "under construction" for 6 months, only to have the actual work being done during one week of that whole period. Making sure the roads don't last and wear out on a regular basis is profitable business.

  5. Do you know what else is self healing... by Stregano · · Score: 1

    ...Wolverine and the T-1000. Wolverine was alive and the T-1000 was a machine. That's it, time to take out sky net!

    --
    The world is how you make it
    1. Re:Do you know what else is self healing... by Requiem18th · · Score: 2

      Wolverine joining forces with a T-1000 to take out skynet? Somebody give this guy 200M dollars please.

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
    2. Re:Do you know what else is self healing... by Stregano · · Score: 1

      I am pretty confident that you completely missed what I was implying. Oh well, can't teach em all

      --
      The world is how you make it
    3. Re:Do you know what else is self healing... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      I am pretty confident that you completely missed what I was implying.

      Then your message failed.

      BTW, I'm not sure what the fuck you mean either. Wolverine I recognise as a Marvel Comics character from the mid-70s ; the rest is probably waste-of-time internent memes from the '90s.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    4. Re:Do you know what else is self healing... by Stregano · · Score: 1

      Wow, really? So, we are talking about things that can heal themselves. You with me so far? You sure? Now, living and unliving. We are going to look at them based off of fictional items, like Wolverine and the T-1000 who both self healed. Now, are you still paying attention? Hopefully after your cookie and milk you did not get all tired, it is not nap time yet. We are not dealing with a species that can self heal, like Wolverine, hence, it is saying that he is not a threat, and that the T-1000 is now a possible threat

      Hence, the reason why I mention time to take out Skynet. Wow, it is /. and you guys really need the entire thing spelled out for you. When looking at both and then saying, "Hey, let's look at the T-1000 since that is self healing" and then you just get retarded.

      Please stick to anon and 4chan instead of making me explain my stuff further skiddies

      --
      The world is how you make it
    5. Re:Do you know what else is self healing... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Wow, really? So, we are talking about things that can heal themselves. You with me so far?

      Yes.

      We are going to look at them based off of fictional items,

      Why? Is retreating into objects of fantasy your normal response to science/ technology news?

      Wolverine and the T-1000 who both self healed.

      [SNIP]

      take out Skynet.

      Wolverine I understand - a character from the X-men comics which I stopped reading in the late 1970s. About the time I started to grow hair on my balls.

      "T-1000", I don't remember from any comics, or from any books that I've read in the interim.

      "Skynet" likewise.

      Now shove your dummy back into your mouth (wipe the shit off it first, if you want) and speak English, boy! (Of course, you remember that meme, making fun of fucktard rednecks in the name of a major bank operating in pre-Fall-of-Apartheid South Africa.)

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    6. Re:Do you know what else is self healing... by Requiem18th · · Score: 1

      The T-1000 is the "liquid metal" terminator from Terminator 2, Skynet is the name of the computer that would start the man/machine war in the future (2004).

      Stregano really seems to be using some sort of alternative language to regular English or rather English grammar with unkown assumptions. Let's dissect:

      [Do you know what else is self healing...] ...Wolverine and the T-1000. Wolverine was alive and the T-1000 was a machine. That's it, time to take out sky net!

      Normalizing the first sentence here it says:

      "Do you know what else are self healing? Wolverine and the T-1000."

      Which is true. The second sentence is:

      "Wolverine was alive and the T-1000 was a machine."

      There are three 3 things wrong here, the fist is just weird; why using the past tense? Wolverine and *that* T-1000 both exist "now", from the point of view of either one's source work.

      Secondly, "alive" here seems to carry a different meaning to just alive, one opposed to machine, he seems to mean "organic" or "biological". Although it must be mentioned that the T-1000 barely fits the description of machine as we usually understand it.

      And of course thirdly, what does he mean anyway? Of course one is organic and the other isn't, so what? He seems to be drawing a conclusion from these premises but neither the context nor the conclusion is stated. He might as well be saying:

      Wolverine is alive and the T-1000 is a machine. That's it, time to offer Wolverine some dinner!

      Sorry for the rant there. Not a native anglophone myself, I still get a kick out of analyzing bad writing.

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
    7. Re:Do you know what else is self healing... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1

      Sorry for the rant there. Not a native anglophone myself, I still get a kick out of analyzing bad writing.

      Being a native anglophone married to a non-native speaker, the incompetence of some people at using what appears to be their own language infuriates me.

      The T-1000 is the "liquid metal" terminator from Terminator 2, Skynet is the name of the computer that would start the man/machine war in the future (2004).

      I think I saw some of the first Terminator movie - that's the "I'll be back" one? - and consequently haven't bothered to watch any of the rest. Though it's possible that I've been in the TV lounge when some of them have been playing - "liquid metal" rings a bell, and now that I think about it, there's some memory of motorcycle stunts too.

      I think that Arnie's best work was early in his career - starring in gay porn. When he got out of that business his work became comparatively stereotyped and repetitive.

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    8. Re:Do you know what else is self healing... by Requiem18th · · Score: 1

      that's the "I'll be back" one?

      Every Terminator movie is "the \"I'll be back\" one", it's one of the movies catchphrases. Actually I think 2 is the one that uses it most.

      While the first one is the most shocking and new one, 2 is absolutely the best of the franchise. I consider it Cameron's best movie.

      The pace is varied and fluid, the photography and ambient are engulfing, the action is novel. The plot twists unexpectedly without being disorientating or nonsensical. It managed to be practical, poetical, fun and dramatic; ad did it all well.

      It was a milestone, a trend-setter that even today influences all action movies. Thus, it's chokeful of clichés, mainly because it has been pillaged like crazy by every action movie since.

      Don't think of it as one of Arnie's movies, think about it as one of Cameron's movies, but then again I doubt you'll like it.

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
    9. Re:Do you know what else is self healing... by RockDoctor · · Score: 1
      Cameron who?

      (You can tell that my film studies teacher didn't impress me with the benefits of colour over mono, and I think it's still too early to tell if sound was a good move.)

      I think I was underwhelmed when I saw a video of the first Terminator movie when it came out and simply haven't chosen to waste time or attention on them since. If they feel the need to recycle catch phrases between movies, then that doesn't sound very enthusing. Wouldn't it have been better to get the first one right than to flog the dead horse again to try to teach it to sing? ("Right" defined in the only way it can be : "interesting, to me".)

      --
      Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
    10. Re:Do you know what else is self healing... by Requiem18th · · Score: 1

      Not really, while 2 largely echoed 1, it also played to subvert itself, which couldn't be done without the first one to set expectations. They are just different movies.

      Director James Cameron of Aliens (sequel to Alien), Titanic and Avatar's fame, not that you'll know anything about them, except probably negative things.

      May I ask, what is it that you find interesting mister? I'm really expecting something impossibly obscure, inconceivably boring and flabbergastingly pedantic, but tell me anyway.

      --
      But... the future refused to change.
  6. Just so long as they don't build robots with it by Some.Net(Guy) · · Score: 1

    Self-aware + self-healing = End of human civilization

  7. What about cars? by ganjadude · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How many times do you drive down the road and see a cars rear or front bumper with a dent/crack, yet the rest of the car is perfectly fine?
    the reason most dont fix the bumper is believe it or not a bumper cover can cost 200-500 bucks, and another 200-500 bucks to paint, and if you dont know what your doing, another 200 bucks to put back on!. I see it all the time on the roads by me, and in the cities, forget it every other car.

    --
    have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    1. Re:What about cars? by Charliemopps · · Score: 2

      If you have a crescent wrench / socket set you can go to the salvage yard and get a replacement for about $50 and put it on yourself. They are usually held on by 2-4 bolts. But your idea of the $20,000 self healing bumper works to.

    2. Re:What about cars? by kimvette · · Score: 1

      The reason you don't see bumper covers fixed is that the ignorant assholes in Boston, New York, etc. slam into the cars in front of and behind them so that they know where the front and back of their car is. They just don't give a fuck about other people's property. You can have your bumper fixed today, and if you park around the city, in a week the bumper will be dinged again.

      --
      The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
    3. Re:What about cars? by mooingyak · · Score: 4, Funny

      One of my father's favorite stories is about a time he brought his car to a body shop to get a dent fixed. It was a dent in the trunk, roughly the size of a basketball. The guy wanted $450 to fix it (this was many years ago, so inflate to whatever sounds appropriate). He declined. When he got back home and took another look at it, he got pissed off about the whole thing and slammed his fist into the trunk... which caused most of the dent to pop back into place. What was left was closer to the size of a tennis ball. He went back to the same guy a week later and they quoted him $50 for it. He's always referred to it as his $400 punch.

      --
      William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
    4. Re:What about cars? by PitaBred · · Score: 1

      Depends on the car. If it's one of the newer models with a plastic bumper, even from a salvage yard you're talking $200+ for the bumper, hopefully getting one that matches your car.

      --
      My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
    5. Re:What about cars? by swb · · Score: 2

      If you can find one without dings in the junk yard that matches your color.

      Half the reason these things end up in the junk yard to begin with is they get into some kind of accident which generally screws up the bumpers. And due to exposure differences you get different paint fade characteristics which cause color matches to look like color mismatches.

      But I appreciate your over-simplified fix it yourself mindset.

    6. Re:What about cars? by Charliemopps · · Score: 1

      If you're paying $200+ for anything at a salvage yard other than an engine or a transmission you're getting ripped off. (ok, maybe a large pickup trick axle might run you $200) And since your bumpers already toast, break off a chunk and take it with you so you know the paint matches.

    7. Re:What about cars? by ganjadude · · Score: 1

      sadly there are not many "do it yourself" salvage yards these days. Most of them are smarter and price things out for better or worse I suppose. I was going by experience with the numbers that I used. As for the 20K self healing bumper, I understand tech is expensive when new, however I am talking down the line and volume. If EVERY bumper on sad car had this, the sheer volume alone should cause the price to drop. give it 5-10 years and it may be a reality.

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    8. Re:What about cars? by Unkyjar · · Score: 1

      What are you doing, driving in NYC? Take the subway like everybody else.

  8. Not really self healing. by Nadaka · · Score: 4, Informative

    It just grows stronger and returns to its original shape when cracked. A clean break would not be able to be healed. And that "repair" will fail if they ever turn off the lights in the fiber optics because the crack is still there and the strengthened plastic near the crack will cool back down.

    1. Re:Not really self healing. by stiffy · · Score: 1

      That was what I thought. Also had a nagging thought that I had heard of self-healing plastic before. Now if they combine these two...

    2. Re:Not really self healing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It just grows stronger.

      Not quite. From TFA "The system recovers up to 96 percent of an object's original strength in laboratory tests."

    3. Re:Not really self healing. by Nadaka · · Score: 2

      Also from TFA the specific area directly around the crack grows "11 times more tough" due to the light and heat leaking from the broken fiber optic. That is what I was referencing.

    4. Re:Not really self healing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's only a flesh wound...

  9. What does it eat? by mikaelwbergene · · Score: 1

    Do we have to feed it over time? Eventually it would run out of material to stretch and break down, right? It can't just make material out of thin air.

  10. MJ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Maybe now MJ can get his nose fixed?

    1. Re:MJ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Surely the parent knows the news... hmmmmm

    2. Re:MJ? by Shikaku · · Score: 1

      Surely the parent knows about Thriller... hmmm...

  11. Terminator? by t20alex · · Score: 1

    Who tagged this story as "Terminator". Last I heard terminators were not mass produced in China.

    1. Re:Terminator? by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      That we know of....

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Terminator? by ChunderDownunder · · Score: 1

      Japan are making astonishing progress on the Cherry2000, however.

    3. Re:Terminator? by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      I have no idea, there are no resistors connected to signal wires in busses or networks for the purpose of impedance matching to prevent reflections in a piece of plastic, are there?

      Wait, maybe I'm not really at slashdot...

      --
      Free Martian Whores!
  12. Hmmm by terminalhype · · Score: 1

    While they're at it, maybe those Arizona State researchers can work on some self-healing rubber too.
    http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/21/national/main6698274.shtml

  13. What breaks the plastic? by godatum · · Score: 1

    I'm assuming whatever breaks/damages the plastic would also possibly damage the light source?

  14. Blister Packs! by splerdu · · Score: 3, Funny

    This could take packaging to the next level!
    Now, opening that new set of headphones will require the sacrifice of your whole hand, not just a couple of fingers.

  15. At last, my Holy Grail, by couchslug · · Score: 1

    A Fleshlight I cannot wear out!

    --
    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
  16. Isn't plastic derived from oil...? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oil being that finite natural resource that we're running out of, should we still be looking for new ways to use it when supplies are limited? Isn't a Lorax due to pop out of an oil well any time now?

  17. Poor plastics... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Self-healing plastic has been announced many times before, and if it continues to see no applications I'm afraid one day we will have self-hating plastic. :(

  18. Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Okay, so now to develop a type for plastic surgery...

  19. Auto-repair circuits activated. by CityZen · · Score: 1

    Just don't fly into any nano-particle fields, or your ship may be destroyed too!

    1. Re:Auto-repair circuits activated. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wasn't that some kind of biological material? If Avon hadn't taken that key, the fourth series might not have happened!

  20. Self Healing... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Excellent, now my overlord robots will be complete with self healing abilities.

  21. they forgot one application by dominious · · Score: 1

    skynet

  22. Application: the mars rover? by owlstead · · Score: 1

    First of all, I thought that there were 2 mars rovers, and neither one of them has any problems relating to any plastic shell. Even if either would have a problem that could be fixable with this self repairing plastic, I would *not* like to be on the repair crew.

    So I presume that they are targeting future space robots, and are using the successful rovers for advertising purposes?