Eternal fabric: created material that is restored after punctures and cuts

How annoying it can sometimes be to find a hole in your favorite jacket, backpack or, even worse, damage to the tent at the very beginning of a hike or a multi-day rafting on mountain rivers. In rainy weather, this seemingly trifle threatens with serious troubles, and if you do not take measures, your vacation can be ruined. Fortunately, these small everyday problems of tourists will soon be a thing of the past, because traditional materials for the manufacture of tourist equipment and clothes are being replaced by new ones. One of the interesting innovations in this area has been the creation of fabrics that can themselves repair damage on their surface.

The author of the unusual technology is the American company Imperial Motion, which presented to the public tents and samples of outerwear made of fabric called Nano Cure Technology (NCT). Special material, which is not afraid of damage, has the ability to recover only from a simple touch of human hands. As the manufacturers explain, the NCT fabric is a very durable nylon, the elastic structure of which allows the fabric not to tear when damaged, but simply to move apart. If the puncture site is rubbed for a short time with your fingers, then under the influence of the heat of the human body, nylon starts moving and restores its original shape. Engineers explain that such a fabric is effectively restored only in places of small punctures or cuts that occur when in contact with nails, sharp twigs or other objects, but the material is not yet able to cope with more serious damage. Nevertheless, scientists continue to work in this direction, trying to make the material even more resistant to damage. And here is what this unusual process looks like.