Surface adhesion is a ubiquitous need for consumer, manufacturing, and industrial applications. Whether hanging art on the wall, enabling pick-and-place robotics, or rapidly attaching components to a system or building, the ability to create strong, temporary seals that are reusable and do not damage surfaces is cruicial. Existing solutions based on magnets, sticky adhesives, and suction cups have limitations regarding which surfaces they can be applied to (e.g., suction cups require a smooth surface; magnets require a metallic one), how reusable they are, and how strong a bond they can form (e.g., suction cups can only achieve 1 atmosphere (atm) of adhesion in air).
Researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have developed a two-part dry adhesive system that is strong, reusable, and capable of gripping a wide variety of smooth, rough, and non-homogenous surfaces, both flat and curved. The system features an electrically conductive layer that triggers a thermoresponsive adhesive layer; re-application of voltage allows the adhesive to be removed with no damage or loss of function to either the surface or the adhesive. This technology bonds in seconds, is residue-free, is made from inexpensive materials, does not pick up debris over time like a traditional "sticky" adhesive surface, and has been demonstrated to work on a wide variety of surfaces and environments, including underwater. The bond formed is extremely strong, with researchers showing 18 atm adhesion in initial tests. The technology has also been demonstrated in conjuction with a robotic gripper arm.
Benefits
- Reusable
- Adhere to a range of surfaces, including smooth, rough, non-homogenous, non-magnetic, magnetic, fabric, etc.
- No damage to surface the device adheres to
- Waterproof
- Strong bond
Applications
Applications incude manufacturing (pick-and-place robotics that interface with a single surface of a component are often limited to materials that will respond to magnetic or suction adhesion), consumer (e.g., hanging things on walls), textiles (e.g., modifying and reusing uniforms), and myriad other industrial applications.
Publication
Microstructured Shape Memory Polymer Surfaces with Reversible Dry Adhesion. Jeffrey D. Eisenhaure, Tao Xie, Stephen Varghese, and Seok Kim. ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces 2013 5 (16), 7714-7717