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Smart Programmable Bending Carbon Fibre Could Change Cars

Imagine some parts of your car could change their shape on the go to improve efficiency. You’ll say there are actually such systems available, like active shutters, flaps or wings, but then I’ll tell you those add weight to the whole deal because of the complex mechanisms needed to deploy them. Which is not quite what engineers need now in the era of lightweight cars that should consume as less fuel as possible.
bending carbon fiber 1 photo
Photo: Self-Assembly Lab
Don’t worry though, engineers are doing their job and they have already came up with a solution - programmable materials. Brace yourselves, the i-wood, i-cloth and i-carbon-fiber trio is coming.

According to the MIT’s Self-Assembly Lab’s description, these new things are material compositions that are designed to become dynamic in form and function under certain circumstances, while still being as cost-effective and easy to fabricate as regular materials.

The team of scientists led by Skylar Tibbits has been working on these bendy things for the past two years and managed to create a small collection of materials like wood, cloth and carbon fiber that can bend in a certain shape when a specific stimuli is applied (light, water, air pressure or heat).

The new technology won’t necessarily turn your banger into a sportscar at the flick of a switch, but it can improve its dynamics; flaps, shutters and wings could be deployed for more stability and less drag while discarding the old electric/hydraulic actuators and other auxiliary equipment.

Just imagine how BMW’s GINA concept would work using some of these auto-bending materials. This is just... mind-bending.



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