Importance of the Technology
The day may come when cracks in buildings or in aircraft structures close up on their own, and dents in car bodies spring back into their original shape. The self-repairing materials that make these feats possible could even eliminate defective parts on a production line, obviating the need for web-inspection systems. These materials could especially find use in structures that are at present impractical or impossible to repair, such as electronic circuit boards or implanted medical devices. Within the next 20 years, self-healing structures could be commonplace as researchers begin to develop materials—especially polymer composites—with self-repairing capabilities that require very little or preferably no human intervention. An obvious analogy is that of biological systems that automatically and autonomically initiate self-repair when they sustain damage.
The development of autonomous self-repairing or self-healing materials could have a massive impact on virtually all industries, from the automotive industry to the energy sector, lengthening product lifetimes, increasing safety, and lowering product costs by reducing maintenance requirements. The level of autonomy a material needs will depend on the amount of necessary human intervention, the self-repair activation mechanism, the level of automatic response to damage, and the system's capability for self-repair.
Military and civilian agencies, research organizations, and universities have expressed a keen interest in this technology. The prime applications under consideration today are in the building/construction and aerospace industries, but scientific interest and funding still focus on the development of self-repairing materials rather than their applications. The first commercial opportunities will be in materials and value-added products, such as self-repairing composite structures, devices, and consumer goods. As the technology progresses, efforts to develop new materials will expand, and commercial opportunities for application of the materials will blossom. |
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| Self-Repairing Structural Materials Contents |
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Importance of the Technology |
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Recent Developments |
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Spinelike Self-Repairing Materials |
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Self-Repairing–Materials Research and Patent Activity |
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Self-Repairing Coatings for Military Applications |
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NASA Funding of Materials-Research Consortium |
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The Technology in Brief |
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Shape-Memory Materials |
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Embedded Chemical-Recovery Agents |
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Further Self-Repair Systems |
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Commercial Development Parameters |
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Areas to Monitor |
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Reliability of Self-Repairing Materials |
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Materials Competition |
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Research Funding |
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Conservation of Structures and Components |
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Nondestructive Testing and Evaluation |
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Manufacturing and Supply Issues |
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Academic and Industry Links |
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Cost Issues |
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Self-Assembly, Self-Replication, and Molecular Programming |
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Industry Demand |
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Implications of Commercialization |
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Safer, Longer-Lasting Structures |
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New Business and Design Strategies |
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The Era of the Autoadaptive Structure |
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Indirect Environmental Benefits |
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A Scenario of Limited Niche Markets |
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Market Fragments |
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The Coattails of the $1 Trillion Polymer-Composite Market |
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Applications |
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Electronics |
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Transportation |
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Construction and Transportation Infrastructure |
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Consumer and Sporting Goods |
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Textiles and Fabrics |
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Structural Adhesives, Paints, and Coatings |
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Medical Applications |
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Players |
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Updates |
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