>Smart materials would be made of nanomachines, typically microscopic; with features any size, down to atomic dimensions. Such machines would have more or less, the same components as macro, or familiar "normal" sized machines with recognizable gears, bearings, motors, levers and belts...(except for all the nanocomputers)
This is somewhat helpful to the engineer designing smart materials with a great myriad of functions like shape changing and distributing fluids and gas; say for environmental control in a paper thin space suit that moves with the body or Drexler's smart paint. Open a can and splat some on a wall. The paint spreads itself across the surface using microscopic machines and changes color on command or becomes a wall sized 3-D television... Then again, the whole wall may as well be smart material changing texture or windows onncommand. The point here... one can visualize the machines needed to do such a job; little tractors with sticky wheels, connecting struts and cables to other machines. Actually, most of this can be done today; only on a much larger scale and at great expense (this is there the novel economics of self replicating machines plugs in). The transition for an engineer, is using more machines with much smaller parts and the luxury of vast computing power. These differences yield more great utility. Gears made of Buckytubes are great nanomachine components... Buckytubes are carbon graphite sheets rolled into a tube (looks like tubes of chicken wire), and are "like" carbon in its diamond form, but with ALL available bonding strength aligned on one axis. These tubes are stronger than diamond fiber, and the strongest fiber possible with matter, so we're starting out with a real racehorse material. Globes and Team designs are chemically stable, very tough and varied in geometry, including gears made from "nested" Buckytubes or tubes inside of tubes. Such a gear would be stiffer and suited for a "long" drive shaft. And talk about performance..
This is somewhat helpful to the engineer designing smart materials with a great myriad of functions like shape changing and distributing fluids and gas; say for environmental control in a paper thin space suit that moves with the body or Drexler's smart paint. Open a can and splat some on a wall. The paint spreads itself across the surface using microscopic machines and changes color on command or becomes a wall sized 3-D television... Then again, the whole wall may as well be smart material changing texture or windows onncommand. The point here... one can visualize the machines needed to do such a job; little tractors with sticky wheels, connecting struts and cables to other machines. Actually, most of this can be done today; only on a much larger scale and at great expense (this is there the novel economics of self replicating machines plugs in). The transition for an engineer, is using more machines with much smaller parts and the luxury of vast computing power. These differences yield more great utility. Gears made of Buckytubes are great nanomachine components... Buckytubes are carbon graphite sheets rolled into a tube (looks like tubes of chicken wire), and are "like" carbon in its diamond form, but with ALL available bonding strength aligned on one axis. These tubes are stronger than diamond fiber, and the strongest fiber possible with matter, so we're starting out with a real racehorse material. Globes and Team designs are chemically stable, very tough and varied in geometry, including gears made from "nested" Buckytubes or tubes inside of tubes. Such a gear would be stiffer and suited for a "long" drive shaft. And talk about performance..
