Adhesive fingerprints with a gecko-like texture that easily grabs or releases flat surfaces
Image credit: Geckskin
Darko SavicMay 15, 2022
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A thin silicone fingerprint with a gecko-like texture (dry adhesive) on one side and glue that temporarily sticks to the human fingerprint/skin on the other.
Why?
You glue the gecko fingerprints on when you need to work with objects that would otherwise be difficult to pick up.
Playing cards and counting cash would be easier with gecko fingerprints.
Where else would this be useful?
How it works
Fingerprint-sized, thin silicone pads with a gecko-like texture on one side and glue that temporarily sticks to the human fingerprints on the other.
Biomimetic Gecko's fingerprints
Geckos can run on walls and ceilings with a step interval of about 20 milliseconds. Researchers have been fascinated by their ability to move on vertical surfaces and ceilings. Given the strong adhesion generated by the animal, the mechanism that keeps this adhesion over thousands of cycles of contact and release is even more remarkable. The climbing ability of geckos is considered a remarkable design of nature that is attributed to the fine structure of its toes, which contain setal arrays consisting of hundreds of spatulae on each seta. These fine structures allow for intimate contact between the spatulae and surfaces to obtain high adhesion and friction forces on almost any surface, whether hydrophilic or hydrophobic, rough or smooth, through weak van der Waals forces.
Gecko fingerprints don't stick to dirt or other small particles. They stay extremely clean regardless of the surfaces the gecko comes into contact with. They also do not require pressure to stick to surfaces.
Rolling in attachment, rolling out detachment:
Gecko fingerprints are a particularly interesting from the perspective of creating dry adhesives. Such adhesives are already available.
[1]Adhesion and friction in gecko toe attachment and detachment
Yu Tian, Noshir Pesika, Hongbo Zeng, Kenny Rosenberg, Boxin Zhao, Patricia McGuiggan, Kellar Autumn, and Jacob Israelachvili - https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0608841103
Darko Savic May 15, 2022