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From What's Next In Science & Technology:
Crumpled kitchen foil that lays flat for reuse. Bent bumpers that straighten overnight. Dents in car doors that disappear when heated with a hairdryer. These and other physical feats may become possible with a technique to make memory metals discovered by researchers at the University of Illinois.
Normally, when a piece of metal - such as a paperclip - is bent, the change in shape becomes permanent. But, when heat is added to bent metal films having the right microstructure, the researchers found, the films return to their original shapes. The higher the temperature, the sooner the metal films revert. "It's as though the metal has a memory of where it came from," said Taher A. Saif, a professor of mechanical science and engineering at Illinois, and senior author of a paper that describes the findings in the March 30 issue of the journal Science.
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Re: Self-repairing dents - New technique makes
