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Isotactic Polypropylene
Pixel

Créé par

Pixel

22. septembre 2026FI
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Isotactic Polypropylene

Propylene had always polymerised into a useless sticky mass. In March 1954 Giulio Natta's group at the Milan Polytechnic, using catalysts of the kind Karl Ziegler had just found for ethylene, made polypropylene in which every methyl group sits on the same side of the chain. They called it isotactic. The ordered chains crystallise, and a sticky nothing became a stiff, light, tough plastic. Natta and Ziegler shared the 1963 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. **US 3,112,300**, "Isotactic polypropylene", Natta, Pino and Mazzanti, assigned to Montecatini, filed 9. December 1957 (continuing an application of 8. June 1955), granted 26. November 1963. Its single claim is the arrangement itself: macromolecules "insoluble in boiling n-heptane" with the structure "shown in FIGURE 2 of the accompanying drawing". **You build the property that made it famous**: an Arduino servo rig that folds a polypropylene living hinge thousands of times, beside PET film.
Intermédiaire
3 hours plus flex runs

Consignes

1

Cut the hinges

Cut 80 x 20 mm strips from 0.5 mm polypropylene and from PET film. Measure both thicknesses. Fold each sharply across the middle once and flatten the crease with a fingernail - flexing it right away is how moulded hinges are made too.

Matériaux pour cette étape :

Feuille de polypropylène (A4)Feuille de polypropylène (A4)1 feuille
Feuille de pochoir en mylarFeuille de pochoir en mylar1 feuille

Outils nécessaires :

CutterCutter
RègleRègle
Pied à coulisse numérique 6 poucesPied à coulisse numérique 6 pouces
2

Build the fixture

Screw two 100 x 50 mm pine blocks side by side. Hot-glue the servo to one so its shaft sits exactly on the crease line. Clamp one leaf of the hinge to the other block with a binder clip; hot-glue the free leaf to the servo horn.

Matériaux pour cette étape :

Planche de pinPlanche de pin1 pièce
Vis à boisVis à bois2 pièces
Micromoteur servo SG90 (5 pièces)Micromoteur servo SG90 (5 pièces)1 paquet

Outils nécessaires :

Pistolet à colle chaudePistolet à colle chaude
Grandes pinces à dessinGrandes pinces à dessin
Jeu de tournevisJeu de tournevis
3

Wire and flash the counter

Servo signal to D9, power to 5V and GND; microswitch between D2 and GND. One SG90 can run from the Uno's 5 V pin - if the board resets under load, power the servo separately with a shared GND. Open the serial monitor at 115200.
living_hinge_flex_counter.inocpp
// Living-hinge flex counter - batch 97, US 3,112,300
// Flexes a hinge 0 -> 90 degrees and back, and stops every BLOCK cycles for you to inspect it.
// Servo signal -> D9, servo + -> 5V, servo - -> GND. Microswitch between D2 and GND.
#include <Servo.h>

Servo flexer;
const int SERVO_PIN  = 9;
const int BUTTON_PIN = 2;             // microswitch to GND, internal pull-up
const int OPEN_DEG   = 0;
const int CLOSED_DEG = 90;
const unsigned long MOVE_MS = 350;    // an SG90 needs roughly 0.3 s for 90 degrees
const unsigned long BLOCK   = 1000;   // cycles between inspections; make it smaller near failure
unsigned long cycles = 0;

void waitForButton() {
  while (digitalRead(BUTTON_PIN) == HIGH) {}
  delay(50);                          // debounce
  while (digitalRead(BUTTON_PIN) == LOW) {}
}

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);
  pinMode(BUTTON_PIN, INPUT_PULLUP);
  flexer.attach(SERVO_PIN);
  flexer.write(OPEN_DEG);
  Serial.println(F("Mount the hinge, then press the switch to start."));
  waitForButton();
}

void loop() {
  flexer.write(CLOSED_DEG); delay(MOVE_MS);
  flexer.write(OPEN_DEG);   delay(MOVE_MS);
  cycles++;
  if (cycles % BLOCK == 0) {
    flexer.detach();                  // rest the servo while you look
    Serial.print(cycles);
    Serial.println(F(" cycles - inspect the crease. Intact? press the switch. Cracked? note it."));
    waitForButton();
    flexer.attach(SERVO_PIN);
  }
}

Matériaux pour cette étape :

Microrupteur (à levier)Microrupteur (à levier)1 pièce
Jeu de câbles Dupont (mâle-femelle)Jeu de câbles Dupont (mâle-femelle)1 jeu

Outils nécessaires :

Arduino Uno R3Arduino Uno R3
Breadboard - ClassicBreadboard - Classic
SparkFun Cerberus USB Cable - 1.8 meterSparkFun Cerberus USB Cable - 1.8 meter
4

Run and inspect

Press the switch to start. Every 1000 cycles it stops: look at the crease under the loupe. Whitening is normal; a crack you can see through is failure. Record the last intact count, then run the other material.

Outils nécessaires :

Loupe de bijoutierLoupe de bijoutier
5

Strain, counts, siblings

Chargement du notebook Jupyter…
6

History & Context

**What the patent specifies:** high-molecular polypropylene made of isotactic macromolecules, insoluble in boiling n-heptane, with the structure of its FIGURE 2 (shown here). **Modern build (derived):** commercial PP sheet, creased by hand into a hinge. Montecatini began production in 1957. Moulded PP hinges now close most flip-top caps, and PP makes crates, car bumpers, rope and food tubs. Its limits: it turns brittle in deep cold, degrades in sunlight without stabilisers, and is hard to glue or paint.
Étape 6 - Image 1

Matériaux

7

Outils requis

10

CC0 Domaine public

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