[Plastic] Smart plastic gets another point, Zhejiang University makes "universal gripper"

Instead of manual handling of objects, we usually think of robotic arms, whose grippers can easily pick up the objects we want to move, and quickly and accurately place them where they should be.

A few days ago, a team led by Professor Song Jizhou of the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics of Zhejiang University put forward a new concept of gripper.

Shape memory polymer is a new type of functional polymer material, which belongs to a new branch of polymer material research, development and application.

The magic of this material is that the properties of the polymer can be controlled by external stimuli such as light and heat, and it can be changed between soft and hard.

This research is based on this phenomenon.

Professor Song Jizhou said that this "universal lock" can produce great grip on typical three-dimensional structural objects, including spheres, squares, tubular objects, bolts, nuts, date nuclei, keychains, etc.

This new handling method has also aroused the interest of scientists in exploring its application fields.

The countermeasure of scientists is to coat the polymer surface with a special material or increase the roughness of the contact surface to weaken the adhesion of the polymer surface, and only lock the object or the surface structure of the object inside it.

Professor Song Jizhou said that in the preparation of flexible electronics, the rapid assembly process of micro-components is very important, that is, the transfer of tens of thousands or more of the micro-nano components on the prepared substrate to the flexible substrate.

(Keyword: Plastic)