Tinius Olsen have established a working partnership with the Engineering Innovation centre at the University of Central Lancashire in Preston. The partnership will aid the development of a ground breaking exoskeleton, which will act like an artificial muscle, aiding the wearers’ muscles to contract and extend.
The structure of the suit is what's called a passive design system, meaning it’s part exosuit, which acts as a point of contraction like a muscle but is also a passive exoskeleton, which distributes the force and load.
The suit has been built using chopped carbon PET, due to it’s extra strength and is encased in poly lactic acid and carbon fibre. The component parts are 3D printed, making the suit extremely cost effective.
Aside for its medical applications, the suit is also generating opportunities within a number of other sectors such as aerospace, sports science and defence. Exploratory discussions are also underway about utilising it in future space missions.
Tinius Olsen have loaned, initially, a 50ST bench top UTM to enable extensive testing of the composites being utilised. The company have also introduced Matt to the international standards organisation, ASTM, which has opened up new opportunities in the US.
Matt will be in attendance on the Tinius Olsen stand E14 at Interplas 2021 for the duration of the show, with the first iteration of the exoskeleton and will be happy to answer any questions. He will also have an example of the technology that visitors can actually try on, as well as showing the testing requirements for the composites used in the suit on a 25ST machine.