Self-healing plastics with a ‘vascular system’

Super-interesting use of 3D printing. Self-healing plastic modeled on the human body. The next remake of Robocop should definitely include this tech. From the WSJ:

“In their demonstration, the scientists managed to close the equivalent of a bullet hole more than 35 millimeters in diameter punched through a 3-millimeter piece of plastic parallel to the floor. They did this by using a pair of chemical compounds delivered through microchannels embedded in the plastic, much like human blood vessels.”

[…]

“Such networks can be produced using 3-D printing, said Nancy Sottos, one of the scientists. The group also showed that it could speed up or slow down the chemical reactions depending on the kind of damage to be repaired—a bullet hole, for example, might have cracks radiating out from it.”

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Self-healing plastics with a ‘vascular system’