I am a student at UW-Stout working on a project dealing with safety in the kitchen. I know there is a polymer out there that changes color when heat is present. I am wondering what the name of this polymer is. Thanks for any help!!
Googled that sucker…though it would seem as though they don’t really disclose what polymer they’ve invented…you might try contacting these guys…
http://advance.uri.edu/pacer/september2002/story8.htm
Also, you should look into thermo-chromic paint. That has similar effects, and you can paint any material with it…might fill the same need for you. I know it’s expensive stuff…
There are definitely polymers out there that are thermochromatic, there are other ways of looking at it as well. I worked on a faucet project in school where I had similar goals. The reason I didn’t use plastics aside from degredation was the color selection, the plastics that currently exist do not change to red. They often will start out as a color and then turn white, as well as some other variations, but I couldn’t find any that turned red when heat was applied. I proposed a more high tech route, utilizing thermoelectric cells to power an lcd screen, the hotter the water the brighter the illumination. I stumbled upon a project that had similar functionality in someone’s portfolio that was really well done. Check out the teapot this guy did.
look up a company called Matsui International
This guy (Keir Shreeves) has done a plastic warning label that changes colour to say “HOT” when the container is hot:
http://www.goodthinking.org.uk/images/directory_%20pdf/097.pdf
It doesn’t say what plastic it is, though. But you could ask him.
http://www.stalliongrp.com/colorchanging.htm
also try looking up liquid crytals,as in those thermometers that you slap on fishtanks that tell the temp! I have seen utensils for infants that use this technology as well as cooking spoons and tupperware …here’s a good site to get you going- liquid crytals info is about 1/4 down the page.
Question:
What’s the use of changing the color and saying “hot” when it’s hot (it’s like “the contents of this cup might be hot”) why not saying simply “HOT” (all the time) , i mean, if you hold the mug and it’s not hot, you ain’t gonna sue anybody.
The reason i want the plastic to symbolize ‘hot’ is because the top of a stove is not always hot. If something on top of a stove were to say ‘hot’ the user would know not touch, or place something on top. Also in reply to your mug always ‘saying hot’ this would not be affective because the contents of mugs are not always ‘hot’.
Thank you everyone who has posted a reply so far, you have been very helpful!
Fair enugh, I meant strictly the hot mug case, It´s a cool idea mate.
Hi there, I am the one who design the teapot. From my research, a kind of ceramic glaze will change to transparent when it is heated to certain tempreture. And you might look into how Mood ring work.
This isn’t really answering your question, but are you looking at the stove itself, or at objects that get placed on the stove?
I’m sure that somewhere I saw a faucet that shone an LED down the stream of water with a varying red intensity depending on how hot the water was. Can’t find it now. Maybe I imagined it. Obviously getting power to the faucet is a bit of a problem for most home users, unless you could build in a little water wheel within the flow to generate a small current.
I did find this, which uses an unspecified (probably imaginary) thermachromic paint:
http://www.udeducation.org/teach/student/floyd.asp