Japan – Revolutionary Wire Shapes the Future (2015) [video]

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2 points·respinal··3 comments

I have a small collection of NiTi wire spools and "hydrolic" style devices that I got back around Y2K. I'm surprised it isn't being used more often on Mars or Moon rovers, since they are less likely to break down than more mechanical devices.

I did hear that one of the Mars rovers used NiTi to open/close a glass dust cover to measure how much dust settled on the rover over night, by comparing the photosensor results when it opened due to "noon" time heat. I don't know if that is true or not, and have no links to suggest either way. It certainly would work, though.

In any case, it's pretty fascinating stuff. Lots of fun to play with on the Raspberry Pi, too, since it takes so little electricity to cause a reaction (just enough to make it heat up, actually).

It is pretty fascinating! I first learned about them by watching a local TV educational Japanese science program (early 2000s, but the videos were older, ~90s). They even mentioned about using them on car’s exteriors. If you had a car accident, you would just add hot water to fix it.

> If you had a car accident, you would just add hot water to fix it.

This is pretty much the pitch for shape memory alloys for making frames for glasses. Bent frames? Just heat them with a blow drier to get them back to shape again. Or use that bath of heated glass beads as they seem to like doing at Lens Crafters.

It would have saved my parents boatloads of money if that existed back when I was a schoolboy.

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