Posts Tagged ‘material’

Polyal

Polyal is produced from manufacturing overruns that were once discarded directly into landfills. The extra polystyrene and aluminum (hence the name Polyal) from the production of yogurt containers are heated and compressed into a solid sheet. As the sheet hardens, the aluminum slivers begin to stratify...

January 18th, 2006 | plastic | Read More

Spacer

Spacer is a high-tech upholstery fabric with a three-dimensional look. Visually, it appears to be three separate fabrics that have been connected. This look is achieved by a complex knitting process allowing all layers to be knitted at once which makes it incredibly strong. This structure makes the fabric...

January 8th, 2006 | textile | Read More

Superblack

British scientists have invented the darkest material on Earth. The super-black coating was developed by researchers at the National Physical Laboratory in London. It could revolutionize optical instruments because it reflects 10 to 20 times less light than the black paint currently used to reduce unwanted...

January 6th, 2006 | paint | Read More

Glare

After a bomb went off in 1988 on Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing all 259 passengers onboard, the Federal Aviation Administration created standards that industry would have to meet if it chooses to deploy luggage containers capable of withstanding such a blast. During the 1990s, the...

January 4th, 2006 | metals | Read More

Film Speaker

Q-TI has produced a speaker which is as thin as paper, transparent as glass, light as vinyl, and can be rolled up like tape. The speaker emits audio in all directions, and can be printed or painted with any image. Film Speaker is made of a piezoelectric coating bonded with PVDF (Poly Vinylidene Fluoride)....

January 3rd, 2006 | plastic | Read More

Veritex

Shape-memory composites are made with resins whose qualities have been altered to give them dynamic properties. Under thermal stimuli, shape-memory polymers exhibit a radical change from a rigid polymer to a very elastic state then back to a rigid state again. Veritex is similar to other high-performance...

December 16th, 2005 | feature, textile | Read More

Acousticel

Acousticel is an acoustic insulation material made from 100% recycled rubber. The rubber comes from old car tires and is broken down into small strips to make this non-woven sheet material. The insulation is supplied in 10mm thick rolls for floors and 1 m2 panels for walls. [via rematerialize] Contact:...

December 7th, 2005 | rubber | Read More

Plastic Mirror

Andy Ouderkirk and fellow 3M scientist Mike Weber were zapping polymers with powerful lasers as part of a materials science experiment when Ouderkirk realized he could bind together hundreds of sheets of polymer film to create a highly reflective material. The resulting plastic mirror is much cheaper...

November 22nd, 2005 | plastic | Read More

Liquidmetal

In the same way that the inventions of steel in the 1800s and plastic in the 1900s sparked revolutions for industry, a new class of amorphous alloys is poised to redefine materials science as we know it in the 21st century. Welcome to the 3rd Revolution, otherwise known as the era of Liquidmetal alloys,...

November 10th, 2005 | feature, metals | Read More

Icestix

British Columbia-based Interstyle makes several lines of beautiful hand-crafted, etched glass mosaics which are impervious to liquids and vapors, resistant to fading or discoloring, simple to install with standard tools, frostproof, and easy to clean. The tiles come in mesh-mounted sheets which can be...

November 10th, 2005 | glass | Read More