antiquity
01-14-2003, 11:56 AM
Fantastic plastic gloves lend a healing hand
BIONIC man or more accurately polymer person has arrived. Using recently discovered plastics that store and conduct electricity, a team from Wollongong University and Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital has built a glove that stimulates muscle movement. The new technology has been woven into the glove for use by patients with hand injuries or arthritis.
The research will move eventually to develop artificial muscles for use within the body.
Director of the team, Dr Tim Scott from Royal North Shore's Quadriplegic Hand Research Unit, said the glove was for use by patients after hand surgery, spinal cord injury, arthritis, burns and stroke. "It's designed to help patients keep the hand moving, especially for people who've had damage," Dr Scott said. "While the healing process is occurring sometimes you can get tendon adhesion where scar tissue causes the tendon to adhere to the tendon sheath, preventing the fingers from moving.
"This sort of device can move the hand in a therapeutic way to maximise the condition of the joints as they heal."
The "intelligent" polymers, whose discovery more than 20 years ago earned a Nobel prize for chemists Alan Heeger, Alan MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa, are stimulated by an electric current. A single-joint prototype of the glove is in use and a full-hand unit is in development. The team, including a hand surgeon, a physiotherapist and engineers, is seeking further development funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and there is already commercial interest in the project.
"I'm hoping that if we are successful with the NHMRC grant within one year we will be in a position to look for a manufacturer," Dr Scott said.
He hoped the technology would be available within a few years.
Director of Wollongong's Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, Gordon Wallace, said the technology had wide potential applications. The polymers are being used in conjunction with fabric, liquids and metals.
"Most polymers are inert and very good insulators, but the structure of these materials is such that they can conduct electricity," Professor Wallace said.
"They have unique properties. When you inject a small amount of charge they can expand or contract quite dramatically, and that's the basis of the artificial muscle application.
"They're lightweight so you can get results using very small currents."
Other potential uses include energy conversion and storage, batteries and capacitors. When constructed as a fibre the polymers can be woven into clothing for electronic textiles that generate electricity. Already US defence companies are funding research to develop computers and other tools that can be powered from solar batteries charged as the wearer walks in the sun.
Australian-based company BHP Billiton is funding research on their use in corrosion protection in metals.
Jim Buckell
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,5839658%255E401,00.html
BIONIC man or more accurately polymer person has arrived. Using recently discovered plastics that store and conduct electricity, a team from Wollongong University and Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital has built a glove that stimulates muscle movement. The new technology has been woven into the glove for use by patients with hand injuries or arthritis.
The research will move eventually to develop artificial muscles for use within the body.
Director of the team, Dr Tim Scott from Royal North Shore's Quadriplegic Hand Research Unit, said the glove was for use by patients after hand surgery, spinal cord injury, arthritis, burns and stroke. "It's designed to help patients keep the hand moving, especially for people who've had damage," Dr Scott said. "While the healing process is occurring sometimes you can get tendon adhesion where scar tissue causes the tendon to adhere to the tendon sheath, preventing the fingers from moving.
"This sort of device can move the hand in a therapeutic way to maximise the condition of the joints as they heal."
The "intelligent" polymers, whose discovery more than 20 years ago earned a Nobel prize for chemists Alan Heeger, Alan MacDiarmid and Hideki Shirakawa, are stimulated by an electric current. A single-joint prototype of the glove is in use and a full-hand unit is in development. The team, including a hand surgeon, a physiotherapist and engineers, is seeking further development funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, and there is already commercial interest in the project.
"I'm hoping that if we are successful with the NHMRC grant within one year we will be in a position to look for a manufacturer," Dr Scott said.
He hoped the technology would be available within a few years.
Director of Wollongong's Intelligent Polymer Research Institute, Gordon Wallace, said the technology had wide potential applications. The polymers are being used in conjunction with fabric, liquids and metals.
"Most polymers are inert and very good insulators, but the structure of these materials is such that they can conduct electricity," Professor Wallace said.
"They have unique properties. When you inject a small amount of charge they can expand or contract quite dramatically, and that's the basis of the artificial muscle application.
"They're lightweight so you can get results using very small currents."
Other potential uses include energy conversion and storage, batteries and capacitors. When constructed as a fibre the polymers can be woven into clothing for electronic textiles that generate electricity. Already US defence companies are funding research to develop computers and other tools that can be powered from solar batteries charged as the wearer walks in the sun.
Australian-based company BHP Billiton is funding research on their use in corrosion protection in metals.
Jim Buckell
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,5839658%255E401,00.html