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Steel velcro can support up to 35 tons
Regular velcro helps the slow and undexterous keep their shoes securely on. But steel velcro? Well, that stuff can support up to 35 tons of pressure.
Developed by German engineers, this new version of Velcro is dubbed Metaklett, and it can support 35 tons at temperatures up to 1472 degrees. It's made from "perforated steel strips 0.2 millimetres thick, one kind bristling with springy steel brushes and the other sporting jagged spikes." Sounds like a bit of overkill for sneakers, but I'm sure they've got some more serious uses in mind for this stuff.
New Scientist via The Daily What
By PCnotPC at 10:43 AM ON 09/09/09
You may want to rephrase that first line about the "slow" and "undextrous" before the PC police call you on it.
By Mauller07 at 11:49 AM ON 09/09/09
Wow an easier way for me to hang my monitor to the wall and take it down when i want to.
this could be revolutionary more then evolutionary
think of the posibilitys!!
i would like to see sasha-baron-cohen make a velcro suit out of this stuff and then try stick himself to the side of a truck rather then wreck a fashion show rofl
Lol at PCnotPC i would have put something more derogative like "lazy" and "uncoordinated"
By roshinobi at 12:00 PM ON 09/09/09
Now we just need to find something else that can support 35 tons to keep the two sides of the velcro on whatever they're holding together.
By Poda at 12:16 PM ON 09/09/09
Sweet, now maybe the Space Shuttle tiles and foam will stay on... or not.
By Mr. Gumsandals at 1:06 PM ON 09/09/09
Re "Now we just need to find something else that can support 35 tons to keep the two sides of the velcro on whatever they're holding together", I can think of one thing right now: that bridge in San Fransico.
By Bob at 1:19 PM ON 09/09/09
@Poda; nothing will fix the space shuttle 'cept for a scrapyard. It's a modified airplane riding into space atop a pile of glorified firecrackers. Sure, it might be the pinnacle of our technology (a couple of decades ago) but it's still hanging out in the bottom of space travel's refuse pile. Nuclear Pulse all the way, screw high costs and low payloads.
And the velcro is neat. It should be great for prefab structures meant to be assembled/disassembled quickly (military structures, for instance, or disaster relief buildings).
By x5tuu at 1:28 PM ON 09/09/09
so how do you seperate it once the 2 parts are together then??
By PTRICKY at 3:07 PM ON 09/09/09
35 tons of pressure! wow!
So looking at the sourced article it seems it can support 68.65 kPa or 9.957 psi in separation forces (perpendicular to strip) and 343.2 kPa or 49.78 psi in shear (rubbing two pieces together)
Sorry, but as an engineer I hate it when people say thinks like 'pounds of pressure'.
By Tropical J at 3:13 AM ON 09/11/09
How in the world do you take it apart once its on? it will hold thirty five tons of pressure!!!!! if you ask me. once its together, it stays together.
By Anonymous Cow at 1:44 PM ON 09/28/09
35 tonnes (or whatever units) are the amount it can handle under uniform motion, not how much it handles when, say you "peel" it or leverage something between the two strips. This is just like regular velcro which can hold many pound suspended from sheering or separation, but can be detached by simply peeling two strips from each other.
By Anonymous at 4:48 PM ON 11/29/09
You people my joke and laugh now but the guy that invented this stuff will have the last laugh... all the way to the bank!!!
I wish I could get one good idea like this. You cant help but look at it and hit your self in the gead and think "Duh, it's so simple, why didn't I think of that.
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