Artificial Muscle as Shock Absorber
It is not very fun to ride a bicycle on a street plastered with cobblestones. At least the bike has a saddle seat filled with silicone. That lessens the shocks and bumps, and counteracts some of the annoying vibrations. In a professional’s eyes, the material in the saddle is an elastomer — a material that is yielding and malleable, like a rubber band. Engineers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Structural Durability and System Reliability are now working on the next generation: They are designing components made of elastomers that actively respond to unwanted vibrations, and dampen them more effectively than ever before. [PhysOrg, com, 4 Jun 2012]