IDEA: non-newtonian material to assist gel protection inlays

Hi,
shoes and other sturdy protection gear by their nature will cause blisters and skin shaving as they go about protecting the body. Being harder than skin means that there area likely to be pressure points that can be painful. Often these are caused by the body shape being irregular curved and "bumpy" -- near the Fibula for instance or at the edge of the protection material.

Applying conventional gel packs to such areas provide some protection. The gel is designed to flow away from the high pressure area making a dent to fill by the body contour. Examples for this are gel socks [1] and memory foam [2]. However, as gel does have a constant viscosity the denting effect also introduces a sponginess that absorbs some of the desirable tactile experience for walking, gripping or other tactile tasks. This is irrespective of the pressure being short lived or permanent. I imagine that this can be distracting and/or tiring. Especially the short lived pressure does help the body move as our nerves can feel how the body part or shoe is positioned.

I suggest to use a non-newtonian [3] memory material similar to the custard combined with gel or as an additional gel sock or gel layer to complement the denting effect of normal gel with a temporary hardening. Unlike gel, a non-newtonian material will offer different viscosity for sharp and hard pressures than soft and gentle movements.

The theory is that if there is a sharp defined pressure point, the gel will move away as per its viscosity but not after first hardening briefly around the pressure "point" making it a dynamic pressure "area" for the tactil feedback. Desirable is a memory effect that will not only soften hard forces but also eliminated the spongy feeling of the material. The movement of the shoe for example will be more direct as the non-newtonian properties delay the smoothing of the pressure point a little bit for pushing off. However, the effect must be subtle enough so that the gel can push away from the pressure point to not damage the body.


[1]http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=gel+socks
[2]http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=memory foam
[3]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-Newtonian_fluid

IDEA: self scrubbing cleaning solution

Hi,
without knowing the exact chemical components of food after cooking and burning into your put this idea is somewhat speculative. I gather that most cooked in stains are burned fat and/or sugar that bonded nicely with the metal. Compounded by the fact that metal shrinks when cooling this may well improve the bonding as the rough surface of the metal pinches the burned food like metal claws.

Nanotechnology has ideas of preventing material to stick in the first place by preventing bonding. This isn't much of use for the conventional cockware. One of the problems is to create an agent, chemical or otherwise, to dissolve the bond between metal and burned food. Presumably, this problem has already been solved by the major corporation that produce the cleaning agents. My guess is that the trick lies in delivering the agent where it counts.

Mechanically from the outside, due to the surface roughness I presume, there is not a chance for removal without an chemical agent by hand. It has to be an iterative process of dissolving some of the food, cracking more grooves into the burned food and further dissolving. A process we know and dread as scrubbing.

Using a cleaning agent which is either magnetic or electrostatic movable the agent could attempt to penetrate and underflow food. The cookware could be placed on a magnetic or electrostatic surface attracting the cleaning agent. A chosen agent might loose the magnetic or electrostatic attraction when chemically altered after dissolving the dirt. Therefore allowing fresh agent to pull through. Using the right field polarisation, the agent could be concentrated onto the dirty spots decreasing wastage of itself.

Another variation would be to change polarisation of the underlying surface in a fashion that will rotate the cleaning agent molecule and possibly increase its effectiveness due to the added mechanical boost.

An even further variation would be a dish washer equipped with magnetic or electrostatic walls allowing for the same mechanism in the washing machine.

A metallic magnetic paste without chemical properties may be used as cleaning agent and only relying on the mechanical movement for cleaning and polishing. However, this will have the drawback of gradually eroding the metal surface as well. Focussing the cleaning agent is therefore paramount.

Another .. and so forth...

Initial post

Hello world,
inventions are reportedly 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration (T.A. Edison ?). Unfortunately, I have neither the patience, the time nor the stamina to go through 99% of perspiration. Rather that sitting of an idea for a long time and then seeing others to run with it - as well as taking the easy way out from research, intensive prior art research and copyrights - I blog my ideas. Hence my sincere apologise should I unintentionally step in someone's shoes. Credit where credit is due. Should you borrow one of these ideas, I appreciate the same courtesy.