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Biological tape
Using insect tricks to stick
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Achim Oesert, member of the Functional Morphology and Biomechanics
group at the University of Kiel, Germany, hangs from the ceiling using
bio-inspired polymer tape while surrounded by other team members.
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Insects can run up walls, hang from ceilings, and perform other amazing feats that have for centuries fascinated human observers. Now scientists from the Zoological Institute at the University of Kiel, in Germany have borrowed an insect trick to make a dry tape that can be repeatedly peeled off without losing its strong adhesive properties. The researchers presented their work at the AVS Symposium, held Oct. 30 – Nov. 4, 2011, in Nashville, Tennessee.
The key to many insects' wall-scaling ability lies in the thousands of tiny hairs that cover their feet and legs. The hairs have flattened tips that can splay out to maximize contact on even rough surfaces.
"The main issue for good adhesion is intimate contact with the substrate," explains Stanislav Gorb, a lead researcher on the project. "Due to multiple contact points (hairs), they can build proper contact with almost any surface."
Using the same idea, the researchers manufactured a silicone tape patterned with similar tiny hairs. They found the patterned tape was at least two times harder to pull off of a surface than a flat tape of the same material.
The insect-inspired tape can also work under water, leaves behind no sticky residues, and can be attached and detached for thousands of cycles without losing its ability to grip. One team member even succeeded in dangling himself from the ceiling using a 20 x 20 centimeter square piece of the new tape.
Bio-inspired adhesives have many potential commercial applications, from wall-climbing search robots to industrial pick-and-place machines. And the research group hasn't stopped looking to nature for new ideas. The team is currently investigating interesting features of variety of other living organisms, including beetle cover-wings, snake skin, and anti-adhesive plants.
"From nature we can get rather unconventional ideas," says Gorb. "Not all solutions from nature are doable and not all of them are cheap. But they are numerous."
Adapted from materials obtained from the AAAS
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