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New super-slippery material
Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 4:30 pm
by Sabre
Telegraph
You may never have to fight to get the last drops of sauce out of the ketchup bottle ever again.
Scientists have created one of the most slippery materials ever made after copying the leaves from a carnivorous plant.
Their research promises to result in new self-cleaning surfaces that never get dirty and could even be used to coat the inside of bottles and jars to help consumers get all of the food inside.
Anyone who is partial to some tomato sauce with their food will know how difficult it is to get the final dregs from ketchup bottles and it even led to manufacturer Heinz advertising its sauce with the slogan "Good things come to those who wait".
The new material, however, repels both water and oil based liquids, meaning condiments such as tomato ketchup or jam slide off it easily without leaving any residue.
I can see it's use in bearings and in engines too, provided it could withstand the heat.
Re: New super-slippery material
Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 6:11 pm
by zaxrex
Hey, if you can't stand the heat, go back into the kitchen. Or pantry, or fridge...
Sorry, i had to.
Re: New super-slippery material
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 7:39 am
by drwrx
I think it should be: "If you can't stand the heat, get out of the combustion chamber."
My guess is that the slippery substance will not hold-up to heat. At least not in it's initial form.
Later developments may improve on this, but with combustion temps that can be close to 3,600 deg f that could be a long way off.
Re: New super-slippery material
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 11:01 am
by Sabre
It could probably still be used in the bearings and such till they do get the temp's up
Re: New super-slippery material
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 1:00 pm
by Raven
Slippery really isn't your primary concern with bearings, it's pressure loads. Can this stuff stand up to thousands of lbs over thousands of revolutions that happen in just one minute? I'd wager no, considering their primary application seems to be ketchup bottles.
Also, ideally you're always riding on a film of oil over the bearing surface, rather than the bearing itself. So how slippery the bearing surface is isn't that critical anyway.
Re: New super-slippery material
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 3:39 pm
by Mr Kleen
if it's slippery enough you may not need a film of oil...
Re: New super-slippery material
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 4:13 pm
by Sabre
^^^ True!
I know that you are riding on that layer of oil film, but I would argue that any help in the "sliperiness" would help recover some lost horsepower. Throw this on the gears and recover lost power there. I can just see a lot of different applications for this
Re: New super-slippery material
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 6:39 pm
by FreddyG
but the thing is they only get hot from friction, if something was virtually frictionless heat would never generate, so maybe i could see this in combination with oil or used in slower moving mechanical objects like a conveyor belt or maybe it could be a new type of clear coat to protect the paint on cars.