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VarStiff, a New Hard/Soft Material. Never Mind the Medical Applications--What Can We Designers Do With It?

By Rain Noe - March 11, 2013

in Materials

A Spanish company called Tecnalia has developed a new type of fabric that can be made to go from soft to hard and back again. Called VarStiff, the material's default state is soft, like regular fabric; but attaching a vacuum to an embedded valve and sucking all of the air out turns the material rigid, "[achieving] hardness equivalent to that of a conventional plastic." To get it soft again, re-introduce air.

Early target applications are medical, with plans to incorporate VarStiff into an easily-applied, easily-removable cast. But the industrial designer in you has got to be wondering: Could the surface be treated with something that could withstand molten plastic, so that we could use it as a mold? I also wonder if it could be used in some kind of clamping capacity in a shop, providing temporary stiffness around hard-to-join, irregularly-shaped parts.

I'd also like to see just how stiff it can be made. If it could be used to create furniture, shipping and moving it would be a lot easier. And imagine a skateboard that you could roll up and toss into a backpack; two trucks connected to a flexible bag takes up a heckuva lot space than an entire deck. Then again, you might have to carry a Dustbuster around to activate the thing.

Anyways here's a video—Spanish language only—providing a teaser look at the stuff:

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bob

11 years ago

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this material gives me a hard ro-boner
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ender's game

11 years ago

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whoa. make a whole body suit of this and combine with laser tag. you get hit in the arm, your arm stiffens up. you get hit in the leg, your knee stiffens up. probably dangerous, but bonus! your suit doubles as a cast.
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Dave

11 years ago

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I have seen a similar thing done to custom fit saddles for horses.

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Chris Arney

11 years ago

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The obvious application: the Batcape!!!!
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gmoke

11 years ago

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This may be a good material for soft robots.
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J.Eriksson

11 years ago

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Its been done, just use coffee: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/10/101025161140.htm
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