Have you ever wonder climbing wall without rope? Like spider-man do? You may not but you know that nothing is impossible today. As technology growing , we are seeing lot of new inventions that we never thought they can be real. But, now we have to accept it.
Elliot Hawkes, a student from Stanford university created gloves that can help humans climb on glass walls. He named it Gecko Gloves.
As Elliot said he is working with a group of engineers who are developing reusable and controllable adhesive materials that can bond with smooth surfaces such as glass, but also release with the use of minimal effort. and this adhesive material helped them to create a device that can enable humans to climb glass walls.
He said
“One of the most important attributes of their adhesive is that it’s controllable, like tape that you can turn on when you want it to stick, and turn off when you don’t,”
How does Gecko Gloves work?
As Elliot explained, each gecko handheld pad is coated with 24 adhesive tiles. Each tile is covered with sawtooth-shape polymer structures, which measures about 100 micrometers long, or about the width of a normal human hair.
The pads are also connected to degressive springs that become less stiff when the pad is stretched, which means that when the springs are pulled they apply similar force to the adhesive tiles and causes the sawtooth-like structure to flatten. When the load tension is released it reduces grip.
The latest version of the Gecko Gloves can support around 200 pounds, or about 90 kilograms (kg). However, if the size is increased by 10 times it can support about 2,000 pounds, or 900 kg.
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