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Gizmorama - September 30, 2015
Good Morning,
Imagine a world without flat tires. Well, German scientist are making this a reality with the development of a self-repairing rubber tire. If you ask me, reinventing the wheel is a good idea.
Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.
Until Next Time,
Erin
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*-- Italian collective unveils world's largest 3-D printer --*
RIETI, Italy - The world's largest 3-D printer is capable of building clay dwellings aimed to be used to supplement a growing global housing crisis.
Italian collective WASP -- or World's Advanced Saving Project -- presented their 40 foot high, lightweight printer named Big Delta last week during a three-day festival celebrating the feat. Unlike other large scale 3-D printers focused on building structures, this device is capable of creating an entire hut from the bottom up during one printing session. Its principal building material is mud.
The distinct shapes of the printed housing mimics those of mud nests built by a certain species of wasp. The designs are also inspired by traditional hut dwellings and mud structures like those built in Morocco.
According to a press release, WASP aims to employ Big Delta to build affordable housing for an estimated 4 billion people who will be living on less than $3,000 annually by 2030. The United Nations calculates the need of an average 100,000 new homes per day over the next 15 years. WASP hopes to be part of the solution, but also to inspire a new method of living.
"The company proposes a vision that goes well beyond that of low cost housing," the release read. "We are talking about the MakerEconomy, a new model where everything can be self manufactured through shared solutions."
WASP was created in 2012 by Massimo Moretti, who previously founded CSP (Centro Sviluppo Progetti) after working ten years in the electronic industry. WASP focuses on developing 3-D printing technology which can later be part of an "Open-Souce" society where manufacturing goods is placed into the consumer's hands. It develops printers capable of using materials such as bio-plastic, clay, silicone and even wood to print various objects.
*-- Scientists develop tire-grade rubber that repairs itself --*
DRESDEN, Germany - Material scientists in Germany have developed a rubber capable of self-repairing. The development could pave the way for a world without flat tires.
Currently, all modern auto tires are made of rubber created using a process called sulfur vulcanization. Adding sulfur or other similar curatives or accelerators makes rubber stronger and more elastic, but the process also eliminates rubber's ability to repair itself.
A cut in a modern car tire typically can't be patched. The tire must be replaced.
But scientists have now developed sulfur-free tire-grade rubber, made using a process called ionic modification. By treating bromobutyl rubber with carbon and nitrogen additives, scientists were able to create rubber with strength and elasticity, avoiding the need for vulcanization.
The new rubber can reform these properties as it repairs itself in the wake of a cut. In lab experiments, the new rubber healed at room temperature, but healed faster when heat was applied.
Scientists say other additives like silica or carbon black could be added to bolster the rubber's strength without sacrificing its self-healing properties.
The new research was published this week in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces.
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