Saw this fascinating Animated GIF while strolling the internet superhighway. In it, a person pours hot tea into an ordinary paper cup with a blue band wrapped around it. As the hot water warms the blue part, it expands to several hundred times it’s apparent depth with the heat of the water making a odd swelling across the band, depending on how much and how long the heated water touches it.
As the GIF is only a few seconds long, it might be a fake (the shifting video angle helps defy this), but I imagine the cups are wrapped with a new material that expands under the relatively mild heat of boiling water. It may be an insulator, or simply make your disposable coffee cup custom-fit to your hand, for a no-drop cup o’ joe!
A quick check at Inventables (they sell materials used to develop new products) might have this new substance in stock…
I can’t think of any purposes now, nor do I know what type of material this is, or where the video source for this animated GIF might be.
Found the Source!
This other GIF I found give a better hint to it’s purpose: 3-D Logos on your coffee cup!
I also found the source video link and more info about the product, it’s inventor Scott Amron, and licensing opportunities. It’s called Heatswell, by Amron Experimental and their site is http://www.heatswell.com/Heatswell.html
One Comment
The link to heatswell.com doesn’t seem to be working. There’s another in this link