The problem with this “fabric” or interlocking matrix is that when compressed, it changes in dimension, making the overall structure larger or smaller based on the environment and the container. The true breakthrough would be if you could do this without changing the size of the matrix. Motorcycle spine protectors have been doing this for years based upon shock impacts and they act similar to a non-Newtonian fluid. The concept here should be similar in result, but the force active against the item should be controlled externally by the user and not passively by the environment…that’s where the breakthrough would occur. In this case, it is more like the plastic container is the stressed member and the internal structure is like a simulated truss that merely supports the outer shell.

Man, you could vacuum seal arby's roast beef and it would be rigid just like this new "fabric"

So to be clear: they haven't figured out how to make it rigid without being vacuum packed yet.. Not sure this deserved to be in a Nature video.

It took them years to discover that when you pack particles together they become more rigid... riveting!

As I see it most of the stiffness comes from the insulation material not the mesh. I don't think this would scale well by just using aluminium or steel for the mesh. In the "stiffen on demand" scenario would we need a vacuum pump attached to the mesh? The idea is cool but as I see it there are many challenges before it is usable in production.

Instead of using vacuum to bring the "chain links" together, i think it would be pretty cool to use electromagnets built into the material that you can switch on and off to stiffen the material. Anothet advantage of electrmagnets, is that you can control the stiffness infinitesimally by varyng the voltage and thus magnet strength and thus packing force.

Imagine instant ramen that was made like this

I can't believe they used instant coffee instead of real coffee

I also used to print this kind of chainmail. So fun to touch it, it was one of my first resinprint projects. Btw. it's always good to call sth "smart material"

1:33 "And how much they can touch each other" Explains why I can't stiffen on demand.

A medieval knights fantasy

I prefer coffee grains, benefits include: 1. Warm Color 2. Soothing Aroma 3. Caffeine boost 4. Great with cream

I heard your podcast and it mentioned there was a YT video on this. Fascinating.

Make it so It responds to a charge so you can just flip a switch between a positive and negative charge to compress and release it. Like a muscle

Well yea. If you vacuum seal things that aren't a liquid; the package becomes more rigid. Great work there California institute of technology for discovering vacuum sealers

Use rotation to interlock the individual shapes. Twist to lock, untwist to loosen.

Super cool! Thank you for sharing!

Wow that's amazing! Simple concepts adding together to make fantastic possibilities 🙌🧠

Very interesting. Thank you for sharing!

This would be great for concrete reinforcement

human ingenuity never ceases to surprise me!

Interesting. I look forward to developments going forward.

I think the key would be figuring out how to 3D print piezoelectric "muscles" between each link. you'd probably have to develop a manufacturing method for making a grid of tiny piezoelectric muscles and then 3D print the chainmail around those. Then maybe wrap the whole thing in neoprene and kevlar for protection of the muscles. Across a large sheet of chainmail, many muscles acting in tandem should produce a decent amount of overall force. Then, even if some of the system was damaged, it should still be effective. By measuring the drawn current, it might even be possible to monitor the integrity and potential of the system.

Awesome and cool. Great work and creation. Stay safe and healthy. God bless.

Indeed, very good for medical applications!

This is really cool!❤

"For inspiration they turned to coffee" explains my entire engineering career.

*from flexible and floppy, to stiff and rigid* very nice

Great idea

This could have so many functions. I could imagine it being used in many medical situations, like when trying to move someone who may have a broken neck or spine. Also, in archialogical sites, this could quickly be deployed around the sight, and harden in shape, allowing for protection from the elements.

When any particle looses space between them they become solid, and air has maximum space in between them! That’s not new!! But the chain could be a good thig!

They make an emergency bridge with this, then some kids run up and pop the vacuum seal plastic and down goes the bridge lol

This is awesome 😎❤️

The placing of a wire or rope thru the mesh was my first thought of for an on demand tension system to go from a flexible unit into a rigid object.

Why they call it 'smart fabric'..the material itself doesn't seem smart at all

thank u

There is something in this video that I can't stop thinking about

It is also a very attractive pattern.

seems like granular jamming is becoming the newest tech buzz

Gloves from this would be great for my parrot to keep from biting me

You gotta you figure out an electromagnetic source of power for the right type of conductive material that could be turned on with the flip of a switch which would cause all of it to grasp together to stiffen it on command I personally think graphite would be perfect for this application

I grew up watching stuff like this to learn alil at a time she was so passionate

I remember there was a robot made by someone or some team over 10 years ago that figured this out. They put little balloons filled with coffee grounds at the end of a robot arm and sucked the air out to pick up any oddly shaped object they wanted it to and it worked very well IIRC.

Even a chicken stiffens if you put it in a vacuum bag... let's make emergency bridges out of chicken!

For making fabric you can use nitinol which has property of going back to its original shape when heated, by making it with a certain shape and liking them together and when they are heated they will try to go back to original form but because of interlinking they can't do rather they'll get stiff. And the material is strong so it's better and can be used. It's just an idea. Hope it helps

Smart fabric? Another brilliant solution without a problem

I see it could be the future of seatbelts, airbags.

Bridges made of these would be nice to construct.

Very cool. Someone will find something very smart to do with it for sure.

I wrote scifi short stories with a similar material, used to make uniforms. Under normal air pressure, it relaxed and "breathed", but if the pressure on the exterior dropped below a threshold, it closed the weave and interlocked into nearly airtight semi-rigid armor. Your uniform, with triggering force fields for helmet and gauntlets, becomes an emergency spacesuit. Many things that were sci-fi yesterday become everyday today. Like the waterbed -- "invented" by Robert Heinlein as an acceleration couch in "Double Star", or a medical bed in "Stranger in a Strange Land".

She got the idea from sealing weed. Not sealing coffee lmfao

Modern hybrid of medieval mail which can either open and be flexible or close up depending on which way the interlocking links hang

Interesting this reminds me of certain types of chain if you twist them then they can become ridgid intersting concept, perhaps it can be paired with numatic tube robots?

Really roundabout way to explain how a vacuum sealer works

A full haptic suit for VR what makes you feel every punch and hit from its straining on your body in that particular spot? That's amazing we are very close to player one

Caltech ... what else would you expect? ;) Well done Chiara Daraio & team!

I can't imagine the time or power it would take to vacuum pack a whole bridge

This is a great idea...I see having something un the car that you can press a button on and it stiffens so you can use it to get out of a ditch or if your car gets stuck in sand or mud where you need to place something under the tire to get the vehicle out... this has a lot of practicle applications including storage imagine boxes you press a button and this fabric turns into a box you can use they would be easy to store and reuseable...I'd like to see what they ultimately decide this is going to be used for but I see it being utilized in almost any industry...

I like that she described the next steps to making this smart fabric work. magnetism could be the answer.

YAAAAAA, the true beginning of real body armor!!!!!!

With small enough particles and a control system, this could be really cool! I remember when Nolan was doing research for Batman Begins, he came across body armors made of MR fluid and non-newtonian fluids. Basically, they would be loose and flexible under ordinary circumstances, but could become stiff and rigid if needed. Non-newtonian armor that stiffens on impact or under pressure made it into news reports and documentaries and the like before running into some engineering issues, but I never heard anything more about the electrically controlled MR armor. Maybe this could be a successor or replacement?

Just imagine that inside of a carbon fiber cement or even expandable gorilla foam.

now this is cool

So the key is the vacuum bag, not the what she is designing.

1:15 thats not a coffe grains. thats instant coffe which is pressed powder. Also it works at nearly any grains/powder

Cool. I liked to buy some.

I mean… the rigidity is primarily just a factor of the plastic from the vacuum seal increasing its surface area against the material though, yeah? I can't see any clear proof of the material _ITSELF_ doing anything - especially because they LITERALLY proved the same property exists with a bag of coffee grounds…

Use vibrational harmonics to change the shape to get the different combinations.

Use thermal expansion /contraction. Heat it up (loose) cool it down. (Stiff) metals expand and contract alot and this is used to interference fit various components together, high tolerances required tho

Fractal Tesselation finally being utilized as I imagined .

This definitely holds a lot of potential, maybe not immediately useful (like the invention of Laser found use much later)! Very innovative design none the less!

That is a goddamn cape shield if ever I have seen one!

The real problem is the material used to hold the vacuum. It is close to the stage of imagining how cool would it be if....

I couldn't concentrate with that cold sore. 😂

"Don't make a joke about a material that can stiffen on demand. Don't make a joke about a material that can stiffen on demand..."

It reminds me a bit of those pneumatic worm robots, I really would like some 3D print files for this it looks fun to tinker with

Superb

It needs to be a temperature change, heat expands, cold reduces...

But doesn't just about any non liquid become rigid if you put enough vacuum in the seal?

Mithril!!! Bilbo Baggins!! Lord of the Rings! 🤩

lol. just use lentils in a vacuum-sealed bag

“Next chain” I liked the pun

full support

I guess it's fabric but you can't make socks out of it.

I know one other material that can go hard and soft on command.. well sometimes.

Imagine flexible body armor that you can take off, stiffen, and use as a shield

Great idea until someone pokes a hole in your vacuum sealed fabric bridge and everybody falls to their death.

Ah, so that's how Batman's cape works

I can imagine small electromagnets throughout the fabric used to pull them together, maybe even with feromagnetic matereal making it possible to permanentaly create strong structures from a fabric

We need to find a way to make this bullet proof.

One step closer to spartan armor lock 😶

As well as coffee, starch has some similarly amazing properties.

Finally i can come and visit england without the stabbing part

very interesting

That's not the only thing that can stiffen on demand

While reinventing the wheel can be fun... Might be better to get working on those bridges with what we have NOW instead of later.... Since they keep falling apart.

Finally kingsmen is coming to life

When your friend's mom takes crocheting lessons from DARPA.

As and engineer I often forget how the average person doesn't fully understand what they are seeing. It seems that most people don't understand the difference between the plastic of a vacuum packed object supporting a load vs a rigid structure within a vacuum packed back supporting a load. While watching this I was thinking magnetics as well. BMW came out with a "smart fluid" for shock absorbers that could change viscosity through electromagnetic properties. This has unlimited potential for so many applications.

Out-freakin-dobro, man.... 👍🏽