Episode 13: “Springs in Our Lives”
Hello, everyone. It’s pretty cold these days. People living in cold regions should put snow tires on your car.
Today’s theme is “Springs in Our Lives”. I am going to chat about springs used in daily lives. There are so many springs around us, and it may be rather difficult to find things
Cellular phones and personal computers, for example, are now necessary for us and others include ballpoint pens, business briefcase, umbrella, and so on.
PIOLAX consumer products include “springs for combination faucet” and “springs for headphones.
The “spring for combination faucet” incorporates shape-memory alloy made of nickel and titanium. The “combination faucet” has a mechanism whereby cold water and hot water well mixed at the proper temperature flows from the faucet. Some combination faucets have a lever that indicates “↑” in red and “↓” in blue. Do you remember? Understand what I’m saying?
The combination faucet incorporating shape-memory alloy, such as PIOLAX products, has an advantage over other faucets with shape-memory alloy unincorporated: With a combination faucet, you cannot burn yourself with hot water suddenly flowing from the faucet.
This is why the combination faucet with other mechanism controls the width of paths, that is, pipes in which water and hot water flows into mechanically (by moving the lever). In this mechanism, when the pilot light on your hot water heater is keeping on, hot water first flows from the faucet.
On the other, during the cold winter months, it takes long time for hot water coming from the faucet. This is because volumes of water and hot water do not change with temperature.
A combination faucet using shape-memory alloy can provide water of proper temperature from the faucet, and shape-memory alloy itself reacts to the temperature of water to be deformed. This deformation adjusts the volumes of water and hot water. Really something!
If you see a combination faucet at a hotel or department store, take a look it.
Some headphones use shape-memory alloy. Since there has been a boom in Sony cassette Walkman, headphones have been connected to communication/audio devices to be used. Among them, it is a headband headphone that uses shape-memory alloy. The headband connects right and left speakers of the headphone on your ears like a bridge.
Do you have experiences that the ear pads with built-in speakers did not fit well in your ears due to the long-term use of your headphone, or that the overhead band was deformed because you fold back and up to kept the headphone in your bag? Shape-memory alloy is used just to prevent this from happening, providing constant availability to us.
That’s all for today. I will talk about springs used in medical fields.
There are a few weeks left in the year, and thank you for reading the column throughout the year. Wait till the next episode and best wishes for 2008. (Be careful not to drink too much at year-end parties!)
Written by Banekko (a child of spring)