Years ago I saw a tech brief in an engineering newsletter about a revolutionary new type of linear actuator.
I thought "wow, that's a great idea!"
Then I never saw it again.
It worked like this: picture 3 tape measures pointing upwards & held together at the center. Each is driven by a motor. When joined together, they form a rigid triangular beam that can extend great distances & then retract back down to nothing.
I recently tried finding more info about it. Turns out it's called the Zippermast. The first patent dates back to 2006 (US20060261207A1).
The reason why I never heard of it again became very apparent as soon as I visited their website & saw where these are used...
@__el__toro__ A friend of mine took a video of it in action this year at a conference in Zurich.Looks alien tech at first given the amount of weight it can hold. https://t.co/L3tuhgqLea
