Duct Tapers of the 24th and 1/2 Century

[Rover]

I don't know if this ever came up before, or if I had an original thought, but just a minute ago I was thinking that what would Hi Tech Duct tape be like? I could easily see a super adhesive plastic tape used to seal air leaks and maybe make a stateroom air tight in an emergency. It could be stored with some high-strength poly sheeting to seal larger areas like doors and vents.. I imagine this kind of tape would come in handy in 1001 situations and may even be used in an actual emergency. It would be low cost and easy to deploy. I could easily see couple rolls of this and some sheeting in every stateroom, along with an air tank or two. It may not work in an explosive decompression situation, but with a few minutes notice a stateroom could be sealed. I call it Vacc Tape.

R

 

[Omnivore]

Spray can of nanite paste!

 

[hdan]

I see improvements coming by way of "smart tape", with different capabilities at different tech levels.

Near-future (TL8) duct tape would be like normal duct tape roll that could toggle its "stickiness" with a control device. You could make it release or get super-grippy. And there would be a "lightly grippy" setting that made it easy to place. This would be smart nano-grippers coating one side of a standard "strip" of duct tape. The strip would conduct signals to the nanomachines.

On the most "grippy" setting, the tape would form an epoxy-like bond with the surface.

Higher tech (TL9-11) than that would create the tape strip on the fly in the width your applicator requested. "Release" mode would cause the tape to disintegrate. This tape is composed entirely of nanotech machines that each grab to each other to form the tape as well as to any non-nanomachine surface. You could extrude thicker or thinner tape for additional stregth/flexibility, but the "tape" is still basically a rectangular sheet.

The very highest tech version (TL12+) would be the "smart adhesive goo" like before, but with a sophisticated applicator that allowed you to custom design the final "patch" to meet any requirement. This is more or less a sort of "Omni-Gel" which can be used to fabricate simple parts and affix them into place. Higher TL devices can fabricate more complex parts, though the part is still going to be a single rigid or flexible piece without any particularly special properties aside from conductivity and stickiness.

In all cases, the applicator/control device could "lock down" the current configuration so that the tape maintains its shape and stickiness and can no longer be released by a signal.

 

[Rover]

Spray can of nanite paste!

Neither spray cans nor nanite paste is eco-friendly.

 

[MCEvans]

But any DIY person i.e. PC's or any Engineer worth his salt will have a few rolls of Sliver/Gray TL8 Duct Tape around and at 1Cr per roll, a bargain.

3-6 rolls in Engineering
2-5 rolls in the Ships Locker
2-3 rolls in every vehicle/boat on board the ship

Just remember that Duct Tape is forever.

 

[scott]

TL13 would bring clear box-packing tape that you can peel off the roll without ripping off a long, skinny, useless piece.

 

[BytePro]

I don't know if this ever came up before, or if I had an original thought, ... I call it Vacc Tape.

Sorry, no!

Though, I wasn't quite so creative! Duct Tape and Vacc Tape are two separate things IMTU (Circa '82 on). I used the phrase 'Vacc Tape' specifically for use on Vacc Suits. Duct Tape was it for everything else. Like MCEvans said - Duct Tape is Forever!

I actually used to show my players samples (it held some binder together)! IMTU, Vacc Tape is what NASA used a lot for strapping down wires and various other uses. You've probably seen it before, not only on spacecraft, but in everyday electronics. Its Kapton tape.

It is a sorta rust color (brown/red/orange) and semi-transparent (at least what I am familiar with). One inch wide, is the most common I think (and what I showed players), but it comes in all sorts of widths. My dad used it a lot when he worked for NASA, so I was familiar with it as a young kid. Its very strong (tear resistant) - much more so than Duct Tape. For space applications it uses an acrylic adhesive that is rated safe for outgassing (I didn't know that till the last decade or so when dad fabbed space probe instruments and ran vacuum chambers). Kapton has a higher emissivity (better thermal characteristics) than aluminum (another common 'vacuum tape').

Duct Tape has been used in the manned U.S. Space program for a long time! I always associate it with the lunar rover - an astronaut used it to repair a fender! In my youth, I remember a mockup at JSC that had it (not sure if it was public one or not).

There are plenty of pictures of it holding together stuff on the International Space Station (and, IIRC, at least one of something on the outside! Though I can't see that lasting very long...).

All that said, it never occurred to me to have a higher TL version with a common ingame name - that is cool!

 

[Enoki]

Some useful quotes to use with Duct Tape:

"Can't see it from my house!"

"You break it we fix it! We break it, we're sorry!"

"If it ain't broke you aren't tryin'!"

"Around here it is always safety forced!"

"All it takes is a little imagination, some mechanical ability, and neighbors who mind their own business..."

"Does this sound ingenious? Sound incredible? Sound impossible? Who cares? I'm not listening."

"When the going gets tough, switch to power tools"

"Be generous with the duct tape, you know; spare the duct tape, spoil the job!"

"When you have an impossible to solve problem don't find a solution; look for someone to blame!"

"At the rate we're going in another five or six repairs we'll have enough left over parts to build a completely new one!"

"If the bolt won't go in you aren't using a big enough hammer!"

 

[Rigel Stardin]

Every tool box needs: Duct Tape, Bailing wire and a good hammer...

 

[saundby]

I used to use a lot of kapton tape. If you've got a part that is arcing at low pressures, clean out the arc trace and slap on some kapton.

It's not flexible enough to use on Vacc suits, though, it's too stiff. There is the other stuff, though--100mph tape, also known as "plane tape". It's a cloth tape like duct tape but much stronger adhesive. I used it to hold a bumper on a friend's car once. He drove around with it that way for 3 months before finally coming by my place to get it welded.

 

[BytePro]

Yeah - tends to kink, but if it sticks and the material can flex around it that can work. Comes in a lot of thicknesses, at least in terrestrial applications, thinner stuff bends well enough in tight places, but duct and cloth like tape is still a lot more flexible. Practically, can envision a Kapton type material in a cloth like weave with an adhesive that acts to seal.

Not familiar with 100mph cloth tape, but have used aluminum tape a friend called 1000mph airplane tape (not on an airframe, mind!).

 

[77topaz]

Yeah - tends to kink, but if it sticks and the material can flex around it that can work. Comes in a lot of thicknesses, at least in terrestrial applications, thinner stuff bends well enough in tight places, but duct and cloth like tape is still a lot more flexible. Practically, can envision a Kapton type material in a cloth like weave with an adhesive that acts to seal.

Not familiar with 100mph cloth tape, but have used aluminum tape a friend called 1000mph airplane tape (not on an airframe, mind!).

How about a variation of that for dressing wounds?

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I see improvements coming by way of "smart tape", with different capabilities at different tech levels.
...
In all cases, the applicator/control device could "lock down" the current configuration so that the tape maintains its shape and stickiness and can no longer be released by a signal.

And, just what, pray tell, is going to hold your control device together after Joe dropped it off the top of the Scout on that hi-G world? Hmmmm? You got that right: DUCT TAPE! :rofl:

How about a variation of that for dressing wounds?

There is a medical version of duct tape, iirc. It's a super-duper sticky cloth tape for strapping on gauze and such in a quick emergency. Of course, you could go the other way and say "Duh, there is one! It's called a band-aid!"

 

[MCEvans]

Another Duct Tape quote -
"Don't forget the Handyman's secret weapon, Duct tape!"

 

[77topaz]

There is a medical version of duct tape, iirc. It's a super-duper sticky cloth tape for strapping on gauze and such in a quick emergency. Of course, you could go the other way and say "Duh, there is one! It's called a band-aid!"

I was talking about a "high-tech" version of a band-aid... maybe ever-blood-absorbent or infused with antibiotics.

 

[far-trader]

I was talking about a "high-tech" version of a band-aid... maybe ever-blood-absorbent or infused with antibiotics.

Nothing that new or high tech there

http://www.z-medica.com/healthcare/Products/QuikClot-Interventional-Hemostatic-Bandage.aspx

 

[Icosahedron]

TL13 would bring clear box-packing tape that you can peel off the roll without ripping off a long, skinny, useless piece.

LOL.

Sorry, though, Murphy's Law is the one universal law that cannot be circumvented at ANY tech level.

Hmm, that sounds like a signature line...

 

[Fritz_Brown]

I was talking about a "high-tech" version of a band-aid... maybe ever-blood-absorbent or infused with antibiotics.

Yep, they already have those, too. You can buy them on the shelves: a band-aid with neosporin built-in. (And, of course, band-aids have always been blood absorbent - that's what the little pad is for.) Don't think you would want something that would actively draw blood into the pad - that could be problematic. You might mix a coagulant with the antibiotic to ensure clotting.

Oooohhh, and good RL reference from far-trader!

 

[rancke]

Didn't I see a band-aid equivalent in a spray can in some Traveller publication? Called 'Bandage', IIRC. Or could it have been GURPS? Or a novel?


Hans

 

[Jame]

I see improvements coming by way of "smart tape", with different capabilities at different tech levels.

Near-future (TL8) duct tape would be like normal duct tape roll that could toggle its "stickiness" with a control device. You could make it release or get super-grippy. And there would be a "lightly grippy" setting that made it easy to place. This would be smart nano-grippers coating one side of a standard "strip" of duct tape. The strip would conduct signals to the nanomachines.

On the most "grippy" setting, the tape would form an epoxy-like bond with the surface.

Higher tech (TL9-11) than that would create the tape strip on the fly in the width your applicator requested. "Release" mode would cause the tape to disintegrate. This tape is composed entirely of nanotech machines that each grab to each other to form the tape as well as to any non-nanomachine surface. You could extrude thicker or thinner tape for additional stregth/flexibility, but the "tape" is still basically a rectangular sheet.

The very highest tech version (TL12+) would be the "smart adhesive goo" like before, but with a sophisticated applicator that allowed you to custom design the final "patch" to meet any requirement. This is more or less a sort of "Omni-Gel" which can be used to fabricate simple parts and affix them into place. Higher TL devices can fabricate more complex parts, though the part is still going to be a single rigid or flexible piece without any particularly special properties aside from conductivity and stickiness.

In all cases, the applicator/control device could "lock down" the current configuration so that the tape maintains its shape and stickiness and can no longer be released by a signal.

I think this would be a good futuristic form of Duct Ape. Though by TL11 you'd get very--and to be clear, VERY very--experimental nanite paste.