February 21, 2014 at 14:59American scientists have created artificial muscle fibers from ordinary fishing line
Today, February 21, in the journal Science, an article was published on a fundamentally new way to create artificial muscles, based on ordinary fishing line and other similar polymer threads, without using expensive or exotic materials like carbon nanotubes, vanadium dioxide or metal alloys with memory . Moreover, the method of their manufacture is completely trivial and available at home - the fishing line twists under load until it coils into a spiral and then heats up. When heated, the spiral contracts, developing a sufficiently large force, when cooled, it lengthens to its original size.
Artificial nylon muscle fiber can contract by 49% relative to its initial length and lift a hundred times more weight than human muscle fibers of the same thickness and length. Its specific mechanical power reaches 5.3 kilowatts per kilogram - this is comparable to jet engines of aircraft and the most advanced modern electric motors.
The speed of such a muscle depends primarily on how quickly it can cool and heat up. In addition to experiments with a heat gun and passive air cooling, scientists investigated the work of fibers in water and in a helium atmosphere (it has very high thermal conductivity). In such conditions, it was possible to achieve a reduction frequency of several hertz:
Such fibers can also be woven into the fabric, or weave from them nets and bundles capable of contracting in response to a control signal or a change in external conditions. This video shows how a piece of fabric with 0.45 mm diameter nylon fibers woven into it lifts a load of 3 kg. In this experiment, the fibers were heated by passing current through the wires inside the nylon spirals, rather than using a heat gun.
The article itself with a description of technology and experiments is available on the Science journal website only for a fee, but highly detailed additional materials and videos can be downloaded for free .
Artificial nylon muscle fiber can contract by 49% relative to its initial length and lift a hundred times more weight than human muscle fibers of the same thickness and length. Its specific mechanical power reaches 5.3 kilowatts per kilogram - this is comparable to jet engines of aircraft and the most advanced modern electric motors.
The speed of such a muscle depends primarily on how quickly it can cool and heat up. In addition to experiments with a heat gun and passive air cooling, scientists investigated the work of fibers in water and in a helium atmosphere (it has very high thermal conductivity). In such conditions, it was possible to achieve a reduction frequency of several hertz:
Such fibers can also be woven into the fabric, or weave from them nets and bundles capable of contracting in response to a control signal or a change in external conditions. This video shows how a piece of fabric with 0.45 mm diameter nylon fibers woven into it lifts a load of 3 kg. In this experiment, the fibers were heated by passing current through the wires inside the nylon spirals, rather than using a heat gun.
The article itself with a description of technology and experiments is available on the Science journal website only for a fee, but highly detailed additional materials and videos can be downloaded for free .