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7 views2 pages

stix2001

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resib33332
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Innovations

Project Skyhook
A “smart” material that transforms from a liquid to solid state on cue is beginning to show up
in prosthetics, automobiles and other applications By GARY STIX

In the early 1970s Dean C. Karnopp of the University and then turn the shock on bit by bit as the tire dropped
of California at Davis and Michael J. Crosby of Lord into a pothole. The difference between a passive and an
Corporation wanted to create the perfect ride for a car, active device is the difference between stepping direct-
truck or bus. They imagined the ultimate shock absorb- ly into a fist in the face or rolling with a punch.
ers: attached to the car body over each wheel on one The practical implementation of Karnopp and
end but extending up to imaginary hooks in the sky that Crosby’s work was an electromechanical shock ab-
moved along with the vehicle. As the wheels bounced sorber that adjusted its resistance based on inputs from
on hitting a bump, the sky shocks would thrust down- a sensor that detected vibrations from the road, a
ward to keep the body in a level position, making a dirt scheme that proved too cumbersome and expensive for
road feel like a plush carpet. a cost-sensitive automobile industry during the 1970s.
That, in fact, is what a conventional shock absorber But the idea remained appealing to Lord, a company
is supposed to do. But a shock from the local garage, that has specialized in high-technology adhesives and
although it provides some cushioning, can actually trans- damping devices.
mit, not absorb, energy when you go over a big bump The goal of building active suspensions gained mo-
too fast. A down-to-earth version of a skyhook would mentum during the 1980s, when the company started
have to turn off the shock-absorbing qualities of the de- exploring unusual materials called electrorheological
vice gradually as the tire moved up after hitting a bump— (ER) fluids, which solidify progressively as the strength
of an electric field increases. A shock absorber filled
with ER fluid could thicken gradually to provide just
the necessary damping motions required.
But the properties of the fluids increasingly con-
founded the Lord research staff. High voltages were re-
quired to solidify ER fluids, and the electrical properties
changed quickly when exposed to even minimal levels
of contaminants and moisture. “You could make things
work in the lab,” says J. David Carlson, an engineer-
ing fellow at Lord. “The problem was that if you tried
to take them out of the lab, life got real tough.”
These inadequacies led directly to an obscure
cousin of ER fluids that had been discovered in the late
1940s by Jacob Rabinow of what was then the Na-
tional Bureau of Standards. (A prolific inventor, he al-
so devised the magnetic-disk memory.) The principle
of magnetorheological (MR) fluids is as simple as a
high school science experiment: Put iron filings in oil.
Apply a magnetic field, and the particles align in rows
JOHN McFAUL

like little soldiers. At the same time, the fluid changes


to a solid in a matter of milliseconds.
Contemplating MR fluids, Carlson did some quick

28 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MAY 2001


Copyright 2001 Scientific American, Inc.
calculations, realizing immediately that he might have movement in a prosthetic knee— had more success
found a way around the intractability of ER materials. than the exercise application did. Though not big rev-
“With MR, you can make a fluid with a field 20 times enue producers, they piqued the interest of auto-
stronger than an ER fluid, and you don’t have 5,000 makers, never eager to try untested new technologies.
volts flitting around,” he says. “You can make an elec- “Everybody wants to be second,” Yanyo says of the
tromagnet for an MR fluid survive on 12 volts, and attitude toward untested “smart” materials. In con-
that’s for free in a car.” Within six weeks, the compa- sidering the devices for automotive suspensions, the
ny switched its entire research effort over to MR flu- carmakers worried about weight: 50 gallons of MR
ids. “We had a fully functional MR fluid that worked fluid weighs half a ton. But the Lord team could by
better than any ER damper.” then point to how little of the fluid is used in prosthet-
Lord’s first application was an MR device to adjust ic legs, where weight considera-
the resistance levels in Nautilus home-exercise ma- tions are crucial.
chines. The low power consumption seemed an at- General Motors announced
tractive design feature— and an exercise bike was a less last fall that it will use shock ab-
demanding application than an automobile shock ab- sorbers from Delphi that incor-
sorber. Intended for the home, however, the exercise porate Lord’s MR fluid to build
machines soon made their way into health clubs. Af- an active suspension, called
ter a few months of heavy usage there, the machines
froze in one position— the liquid had heated up and Lord researchers had to engineer a product
turned into a viscous goo. using “the dirtiest oil in the world.”
The Lord team was uncertain whether it had only
to reengineer the oil in which the particles were sus- MagneRide, in its 2003 Cadillacs. Lord has thus far
pended or whether it had encountered a fundamental developed 14 applications for the product, including
material property that would make MR unusable in dampers for the rotary drum of a washing machine as
any application. “This is the dirtiest oil in the world,” well as devices to protect buildings and bridges from
Carlson notes, “and if you talk to people in hydraulics the shaking of earthquakes. It might also be used one
they’ll tell you that you have to keep things clean.” For day to supply force feedback in virtual reality.
two years, Lord made various adjustments, changing Researchers still constantly fend off inquiries on the
the composition of the oil, the iron particles, additives company’s Web site from people who suggest vests that
and the metals that made up the housing and pistons. would harden when a bullet hits them or prosthetics for
Meanwhile tensions mounted between one group do- men that would substitute for Viagra. But the jury is
ing the basic developmental work on the MR fluids still out for MR fluids. “If it costs as much as a con-
and another trying to use those fluids to fashion new ventional technology that gives you 90 percent of the
products. Ultimately, the applications group, which benefit, then it may not be widely adopted,” says John
worked surreptitiously on making its own fluids, Ginder, staff technical specialist at the Ford Research
solved the problem through trial and error with differ- Laboratory in Dearborn, Mich. He acknowledges that
ent formulations, undermining the more deliberate ap- there might be applications—some types of clutches, for
proach of the fluid-development researchers. “We instance— in which the technology would provide sig-
were trying to do rigorous science, and over here was nificant performance advantages. Despite lingering
this Edisonian approach,” says Lynn Yanyo, manag- reservations, the imminent commercialization of MR
er of sales and marketing in the materials division who fluids marks a milestone in the materials sciences. Un-
headed the fluid-development team at the time. Man- til now, smart materials, which take advantage of
agement quelled the animosities between the two changes in their material properties, have always
groups by merging them in 1997. amounted to laboratory playthings. Lord is one of the
Two subsequent products— a shock absorber for first to make a product that not only alters its state on
truck seats and a device that allows a broader range of cue but can also be packaged with an invoice.

www.sciam.com SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN 29


Copyright 2001 Scientific American, Inc.

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