NanoGriptech, a company started at Carnegie Mellon, has announced that it will be launching Setex, the first adhesive that is commercially available and inspired by the gecko.
The adhesive is dry and can be stuck and unstuck to a surface without leaving any kind of residue. It will primarily be used in businesses such as in the automotive industry, defense, aerospace, and the medical industry.
The adhesive was designed by nanoGriptech founder Metin Sitti, who is a professor of mechanical engineering at Carnegie Mellon. He worked for almost a decade to understand and create biologically inspired adhesives, ending up with the concept for Setex.
"Much like Velcro or Kevlar, we believe Setex will disrupt markets because of its many commercial applications. Setex is residue-free, strong and reusable," said nanoGriptech CFO Ben Itzhak in a statement. "There are other gecko-inspired materials in labs around the world, but, unlike Setex, they have all have weak peel strengths and are prohibitively expensive to manufacture."
The way that Setex works is that it has glue-free fibers that mimic the adhesive qualities of the tiny hairs that are found on a gecko's foot. The intermolecular forces at the tips of these hairs allow a gecko to walk on almost any surface, even if that surface is upside-down. Similar to a gecko's foot, Setex can be applied and lifted to surfaces repeatedly without any loss of adhesive qualities. The fibers on Setex are extremely strong, and a number of square inches of the material could support hundreds of pounds.
Researchers behind the tech were also able to customize how they create the adhesive to fit specific applications. For example, it could be modified to help a robot be able to pick up parts, or to improve how a prosthetic limp fits on a person.
In fact, Setex already has a number of customers, including NASA and the Department of Defense. NASA earlier released a video showing the gecko-inspired technology.
Via: Carnegie Mellon
