Self-Healing plastics In June of 2001, the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research and researchers at the University of Illinois (UI) at Urbana-Champaign, funded by a UI Critical Research Initiatives grant, reported significant progress in the development of a self-healing plastic. AFOSR’s Aerospace Materials Science Directorate was the first major funding agency to step forward and award the UI research team a three-year grant in 1999. Without this grant, could not have assembled the …showed first 75 words of 722 total…

…showed last 75 words of 722 total…the shell thickness of the sphere. If the shell is too thick it might not rupture when the crack approaches, and if it is too then it might rupture during processing. Although an operational system may still be five to ten years away, the preliminary results provide promising possibilities for the Air Force, as well as potential commercial applications. Source: AFRL’s Air Force Office of Scientific Research, Aerospace and Materials Sciences Directorate, Arlington VA.