CARBON STRIPS WARM UP DIVERS

Sunday Time Invention Of The Year Award An inventor has developed a material that regulates its temperature without a thermostat, writes Sean Hargrave. SELF HEATING diving suits and car seats that regulate their own temperature are the first of a string of new products made possible by a new "smart" material developed by a British inventor. Robert Rix from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, has created a high conductivity carbonised-fibre material called Gorix. He has developed the technology in the past four years with personal investment of his wife's house, £180,000 of savings and two £40,000 grants from the Department of Trade and Industry. Gorix was awarded the best environment and power invention in the Sunday Times Invention of the Year competition at The Great British Innovation and Inventors Exhibition held at The Barbican Centre in London this month.

Gorix works because it is baked at 1000 degrees Celsius so that almost all elements other than carbon are burned away. Rix says that production involves a highly complex method that ensures the material does not fall apart during this process.

"The secret is in the spinning and weaving of the material", he says. "It means that after you have baked it and all you have got left is basically ashes, they still stick together". The resulting material is highly conductive and more important is able to regulate its own temperature without a thermostat. It does this by sensing how much voltage it is taking from a power source - for example, a row of eight rechargeable Ni-Cad batteries attached to a belt are used in the case of the self-heating diving suit. To keep the material at a constant temperature, either the manufacturer or the user can set up the system to provide enough voltage to achieve the desired temperature - the diving suit, for example, is configured to supply enough power for it to remain at 34 degrees Celsius. The material ensures this voltage level is maintained, restricting temperature variation to within 0.2 degrees Celsius of the limit. Rix claims that traditional thermostats, which require a piece of metal to bend as they heat, thus switching a current on or off, cannot rival this accuracy. More accurate thermostats do exist, but these use a small bead of glass to measure temperature and so can only regulate a small area. With Gorix, an entire expanse of cloth is regulated, preventing "hot spots".

It was such irregularities that prompted Rix to create his new material since, as a keen cyclist, he wanted to develop a fabric to help him warm up for races with little exertion and no localised burning on his skin.

"The idea was to make a material that got the blood into the muscles without a cyclist having to expend energy needed for the race" he says, "I knew I had to make something that regulated its own temperature across its entire area rather than at specific points which would create hot spots". Rix formed a company called Gorix to market the material and is about to make the first world-wide licensing deal with one of Britain's leading diving suit makers. The new suit due for release this summer, features five Gorix strips that prevent the extremities, not covered by a traditional wet suit, from getting uncomfortably cold. Two strips on the forearms ensure sufficient blood reaches the hands to keep them warm. A second pair sewn into the calf section do the same for the feet. A fifth patch in the lower back warms the kidneys.

The patches are not sewn into areas nearer the feet or hands because, according to research at Loughborough University, they would warm the blood in the extremities, but not pump it back around the body.

The company is also on the verge of signing a second evaluation agreement. Lear Corporation, which sells $7 billion (£4.6 billion) worth of car seats a year in addition to its aircraft business, has a team of five researchers at its American laboratories looking at how Gorix could be used. They are in the final stages of initial evaluation and will decide within the next few months if they will take a licence to market seats incorporating the fabric.

Existing car seat can make drivers and passengers feel sick and lethargic because thermostats allow their temperature to rise unchecked to an uncomfortable level. With large patches of Gorix material inside the seat and back of the chair, the user could keep the chair at a constant temperature by adjusting a slider control.

In addition to diving suits and car seats, Rix claims to have companies from many markets interested in the technology. Gorix is soon to be examined as a means of demisting road signs by keeping them warm.

A Canadian company wishes to use the material to lag aircraft engines to protect against cold winter nights and London University believes the fabric could help in building incubators and genetic finger printing systems.

Rix is also beginning talk in which Gorix would be used in walking jackets and emergency casualty blankets.

For the future, Rix has a grander vision. He believes that his fabric could allow us to throw away the central heating boiler and use Gorix to heat our carpets instead. Due to the low power requirements, he reckons he could slash heating bills.