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Building in smarter materials

  • Magazine Feature Article
  • AUTOAPR09_05
Published April 01, 2009 by SAE International in United States
Language:
  • English

Technologies that can automatically respond to changing conditions are expected to show up increasingly in future automobiles.

Finding your car in the parking lot with a dented door panel generally means a trip to the body shop and a hefty bill. But imagine simply driving home and fixing the damage with a bathroom hair dryer. If the door panel were made of a shape memory alloy (SMA) or polymer-types of “smart materials” that return to their original “memorized” forms when heat is applied-such easy DIY repairs would be possible.

Talk about bouncing back from adversity.