I was reading in the Journal of the Society of the Plastics Industry (I do some freelance consulting in that area to some of the second tier universities) and ran across an article on micro-charging certain plastics (TORLON polyamide-imide, for instance). Seems that they were able to easily impress a small current on this plastic. The interesting thing was that when they did that and immersed the plastic in water, it bound a small layer of water molecules to the plastic. Well, I did a little checking via Google and found some substantiation for this, which got me thinking.
We have debated many times here the idea of making surfboards more slippery through shape and through coatings. The archives are full of great and not so great stuff on this topic. But, to get back on point, one area of agreement seems to be that a thin layer of water on a given surface provides the most slippery surface (water on water).
Scaling up from the data in the article, it looks like only a small battery would be required, perhaps a 9V. But a lot of experimentation is going to be required to establish how much current is required, how long a battery would last and how to place the electrodes. And, how to keep from being zapped in the water (did you ever put your tongue on both terminals of a 9V battery? Let’s just say I know someone who did and it left a scar, hurt like a son-of-a-gun. So he says.). At any rate, this is enormously interesting.
I’ve already got a prototype ready using a battery and some wire and an old board I have. I’ll post a picture tomorrow when my wife gets home with the digital camera.
Any thoughts? Have we gone too far? Is this the next frontier? Are we fooling Mother Nature?
The interesting thing was that when they did that and immersed the plastic in water, it bound a small layer of water molecules to the plastic
Interesting technology but i thought that a small molecular layer of water exists on surfboard surfaces…I’ve worked with hydrophillic coatings in my previous career and they have the same affect…keeps surfaces wetted…they are available for water craft…i’ve used them and simple tests validate…if the water beads there’s too much hydrophobic tension…if it spreads and lays flat its more hydrophillic…stays wetted and more hydro-slippery…
Some very “interesting” sea life is attracted to even tiny electromagnetic fields. Just a thought.
Edit: Found some data. Whites can pick up electrical charges as small as 0.005 microvolts. The prey can be detected by the electrical field generated by a beating heart or gill action. A battery…?
Now if you could repel water - hmmmm. A conversation I had with Halcyon netted this incredible wisdom - the fastest fin would be moving thru a bubble of air. As surfboards get lighter the tendency will be for them to lift from the surface of the water. Don’t throw that frisbee over this way, Joe. That picture that has been bothering me of the fin thats creating a big bubble? Maybe a bunch of semi micro toed in fins on the surface of the entry rocker would make those desirable bubble streams. Machine age. OR how about a froth creating Surf-break-groomer. There’s another bunch of jobs created. And I still wonder why there haven’t been some chair lifts made at any beach breaks yet. How civilized. Just don’t dirty the water too much or we’ll have to put a soap film on the water. What a drag. Now where do I insert the battery?
Ok, I have no engineering background at all but, and correct me if I am wrong, then wouldnt a board with small bumps through the entry section (say first 1/3 off the nose) create heavy enough cavitation to cause the board to plane on air-bubbles, say with a bonzer-ish styled bottom countours to keep them under the board, be faster than a flat bottom? How would this compare to the extra drag created by the increased wetted surface and added resistence?
"Developed in the 1980’s and available to the public since 1991, COPPERCOAT is possibly the most powerful and long lasting anti-fouling available to the modern yachtsman. This hard wearing densely copper filled epoxy resin is successfully protecting tens of thousands of boats the world over, saving their owners the time and expense of annual re-antifouling.
First marketed under the brand name Copperbot by C-Defence International Ltd, this revolutionary coating has been soley manufactured and distributed by Aquarius Marine Coatings Ltd since January 1998, under the name COPPERCOAT."
Or how about mixing a little copper dust and zinc dust in your Resin Research sanding resin. Epoxy is an excellent insulator or should I say a very weak semi- conductor, since, theoretically at least, there are no insulators, just very slow semi-conductors. From what I’ve been reading the future is all about electrons.