A company called Polysis specializes in producing polyurethane resins, and with their secret recipe of herbs and spices they’ve produced a peculiar plastic called “haplafreely.” What’s unique about the stuff is that simply dropping it into a glass of hot water turns it into a clay-like substance that can be freely molded by hand; once it cools back to room temperature, it hardens again, while maintaining its new shape. Check this out: I wonder how well the stuff “molds.” For example, let’s say you needed to take an impression of something, like a stamped tin ceiling in an old building. It would be neat if you could capture the impression of a tile, then bring the haplafreely back to the 3D scanner in your office and capture the pattern in software, for later reproduction. I could also see survivalists taking a shine to the stuff, particularly those folks who improvise their own tools; haplafreely could provide an instant ergonomic handle as long as you had access to water and flame. It’s also bound to have some applications for modelmaking and prototyping, and I like that it can be reused again and again. If you had access to the stuff, what would you use it for?
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Plastic That Turns Into Clay and Back Again
