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posted by mrpg on Wednesday December 20 2017, @02:05AM   Printer-friendly
from the glass-turns-opaque-in-front-of-ads dept.

Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard

[...] The self-healing polymer, created by researchers at the University of Tokyo, was initially discovered by accident while they were studying new adhesives.

During the research, one of the team noticed that the polymer he was examining for use as a glue had the ability to adhere to itself when cut, compressed and held together for 30 seconds at room temperature (21 degrees Celsius, or 70 degrees Fahrenheit).

[...] It's not the first time researchers have designed self-healing materials like this, but what sets the new polymer apart is that it's structurally robust, like glass, but also capable of self-healing – properties that are often mutually exclusive in engineered compounds. What also makes the glass unique is that it performs its self-adhering function at room temperature, whereas other self-healing materials often require heating to induce their bonding behaviour.

Source: Scientists Have Developed Glass That Heals Itself When You Press It Together


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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @04:25AM (9 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @04:25AM (#612149)

    welding usually involves some additional filler material added to the joint (but not always).
    There's also the question of contamination of the joint surfaces (higher quality welding is often done in vacuum or with inert atmosphere surrounding the hot zone)

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 20 2017, @07:43AM (8 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday December 20 2017, @07:43AM (#612198) Journal

    Incorrect, or that is to say, wrong. You are thinking either of brazing or soldering, involving dissimilar metals that bind, either brass or tin, with lead or silver, or even gold. Welding is always same to same. Or mostly same to sort of same. Oxidation is only a problem with metals that oxidize, and the usual solution is "flux". In forge welding, this is often a borate, or just silica sand. And it gets vociferously ejected from the point of welding, from aforementioned hammer blows. Have we no smiths here on SoylentNews?

    • (Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday December 20 2017, @12:18PM

      by Arik (4543) on Wednesday December 20 2017, @12:18PM (#612261) Journal
      Congratulations! You seem to have a grasp of 'welding!'

      There will be a pop quiz in your future on 'glass' however.
      --
      If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @03:15PM (6 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @03:15PM (#612313)

      No, I'm thinking of welding steel -- several common methods use filler material:
        + oxy-acetylene gas welding - steel rod added to the molten puddle (I still have my old rig, bought c.1970, works fine for thin steel)
        + heli-arc / GTAW - electric arc shielded by inert gas (with steel rod added to puddle)
        + "stick" arc welding - flux coated rod/electrode is consumed and the steel is added to the joint
        + wire feed / GMAW - combines inert gas shield with consumed electrode

      If you are still in the early iron age with forge welding, you are limiting your capabilities by quite a bit! If for some reason you really don't want to add filler material, you could spot weld, or design a joint where there is extra material that can be melted into the weld bead (ie, turned up edges in sheet metal melted in a butt weld).

      • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:02PM (5 children)

        by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday December 20 2017, @05:02PM (#612362) Journal

        This is how modern technology destroys technology. Electricity has made actual welding arcane. Take a look at pattern-welded Saxon swords, or Japanese katana. "Rod-welding" is kind of the "duct-tape" of metalwork. I await instruction by Arik on Roman glass.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:10PM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:10PM (#612577)

          Is she holding a class? Where can we sign up?

          • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:25PM

            by aristarchus (2645) on Wednesday December 20 2017, @10:25PM (#612588) Journal

            There was mention of a pop quiz. It is a cruel teacher who gives a pop quiz without first presenting the material, in this case silicon dioxide, that is to be quizzed upon.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @01:49AM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 21 2017, @01:49AM (#612671)

          > "Rod-welding" is kind of the "duct-tape" of metalwork.

          Duct tape was invented for ducts (which may be metal, but aren't welded) -- and (in part because of duct tape) we have near-universal central heating, at least in most of the cold parts of the world. Your Greek masters may have had central heating in their palaces, but if they used forge-welded ducts that would explain why only the 0.01% could afford it in your era.

          Ever looked at a welded tubular steel aircraft fuselage, as pioneered (I believe) by Tony Fokker? A thing of austere beauty and structural efficiency. Here's one reference http://pioneersofflight.si.edu/content/tubular-steel-fuselage [si.edu]
          but this may be too new? Does a technology have to be in use several centuries before you acknowledge it??

          • (Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday December 21 2017, @02:54AM

            by aristarchus (2645) on Thursday December 21 2017, @02:54AM (#612689) Journal

            You mistake my point! It is not that recent tech is somehow inferior in general, but just that it tends to promote a forgetting of the technology of the past. Not suggesting that current tech should be forgotten! And besides, sheet metal is way too labor intensive without massive roller mills. In ancient times it was limited to things like armor plate. But nowadays things like forge welding are something of a lost art. And now we have hammer-welding of glass to look forward to!

          • (Score: 3, Informative) by Aiwendil on Thursday December 21 2017, @10:07AM

            by Aiwendil (531) on Thursday December 21 2017, @10:07AM (#612743) Journal

            No, duct tape wasn't invented for ducts, it was invented to seal ammunition boxes. It just is that the family of duck tapes (older product - used to protect shoes and cabling) is insanely useful, but in the modern sense of tearable waterproof sealing with a masking tape adhesive was to seal ammunition boxes.