Crazy-strong Gore-Tex is inside your laptop (and your body)

All right, let's do this. You might be wondering why I'm messing around with liquid nitrogen. It's how the makers of Gore-Tex torture test their toughest materials. Okay, so- You should just go ahead and just give it [UNKNOWN]. Like this? Yeah. [SOUND] Maybe [UNKNOWN]. [LAUGH] It's Beta Test, right? [LAUGH] It really is. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] You probably think waterproof jackets when you hear the name Gore-Tex, but the same material in those close is used in everything from medical devices inside the body to space suits. [MUSIC] This magical material is called PTFE, or polytetrafluoroethylene. It starts life as a rock, which is ground into a powder and then turned into lots of different forms, like a block or a rod. Essentially what we do with that block or rod is, we expand it to create expanded polytetrafluoroethylene, which you can see here in very different form factors from this very thin material here. Wow, that's incredibly thin, it's like I can put my finger through [UNKNOWN] like that. There we go, exactly. So something that would be nearly impossible to put your finger through. No, that's tough. And then we can also make in tube [UNKNOWN] factors So by creating all these different form factors with our processing of PTFE and expanded PTFE, we're able to be into a huge breadth of applications here at Gore. Expanded PTFE was actually discovered by accident in 1969 when Bob Gore when got really frustrated during an experiment. Here's what happened. All right, let's try wrap it a little bit, and then whoa, whoa, that's crazy. So what you've done is you've changed the microstructure of PTF and you've created expanded PTFE from PTFE. So now there's air in there. And we should take the gloves off and you can really feel the difference The transition is really hot. But if you feel the end, you can see how hard the material is at the very end. Spongy and soft and squishy and in here, it's like I couldn't squeeze that if I tried really, really hard. That's amazing. [MUSIC] .>> ETFA has a huge temperature range. When it's blended with aerogel, the same material NASA uses on the Mars Rover, it can insulate your laptop from heat to keep it performing at its peak. So this is just a demo, not that there's crayons in your laptop, but an easy way to show the performance of this thin, flexible material. So if you go ahead and turn on the hot plate, it's just this dial right there.>> Yeah, alright.>> And rotate it around And we can look in on the crayons. As the plate heats up, you'll start to see the one crayon that doesn't have the insulation just melting into the hot plate after a little while. And on the other side, we'll have the crayon on top of this insulation, that doesn't change. That's crazy, it's melting so fast! And the one with the material underneath is totally fine. There's no evidence that it's melting at all. And we have one down. So if you want, you can turn off that hot plate, you can lift up that crayon. And you'll see it, just at the end there, it started to melt a little bit. Just a little bit. And you'll see that it's still flexible, still intact. It's still flexible, it's actually not that hot underneath. The direct surface that it was in contact with, on the hot plate It's warm, but it's nowhere near hot. [MUSIC] Now it's time to take PTFE sub-zero. This is a cryogen bag used to protect drugs from temperature changes during transit. We're gonna compare it to a regular freezer bag. So I'm gonna dip it in here. Yep, you can. It's sizzling. So you want to get that dunk in there so it gets really nice and cold. Woo. Splashes. Splashes everywhere. It'll be really brittle and hard, so just give a hard tug on it. [SOUND] Woo. I did it. All right. It came apart. [LAUGH] It totally fell apart. It just splintered completely. So that's one of the trade-offs of normal polymers is you can either have them have good properties at room temperature or at cold temperature. Now, I'm gonna try and break the cryo bag. Don't try this at home, or do with the right equipment, I guess. So I can here it actually being more crunchy and it feels a little bit more crunchy and it definitely sounds it but your right it's not breaking. It's not shifting. If anything, my hands are colder than the plastic right now. [LAUGH] [MUSIC] So now we come to the intimidating physical challenge part of the episode. What is going on here, and why is there only a tiny bit of plastic and very, very thin material that's gonna hold me all up in this? [LAUGH] So believe it or not, this piece of plastic that's there is rated to over 500 pounds. 500 pounds? Really? Yes. ?? All right, so I am gonna suspend myself from this bar and it's gonna hold my weight? That's right. Okay, I'm kind of too tall to do a pull-up because I'm kind of crouching here, but all right, let's see. There you go, wow. I have no weight in my feet at all. This is crazy. Wow. The most vulnerable part of this is me. [MUSIC] But I haven't tested the core of what GORE-TEX is really known for, waterproofing. I'm wearing GORE-TEX head to toe, even with GORE-TEX converse, to see if it actually keeps me dry. Yeah, fashion forward, 100 % so stylish. So the idea is I'm going to get sprayed with a hose. I don't know why I signed up for this, and I'm going to be totally dry. We'll see how well this holds up. [MUSIC] Okay, the ultimate test. Super fashionable. I am head to toe in GORE-TEX gear. Now the difference between this jacket and other GORE-TEX jackets is that that EPTFE material and membrane is actually on the outside of the jacket rather than in between the flexible fabrics on other GORE-TEX jackets. All right, sorry, let's see if this actually holds true and it's Waterproof because I have an expensive microphone underneath here and I don't wanna have to pay to replace it. So, Linda, take it away. [UNKNOWN] cold. Okay, this is just cruel now. This is just to spray me with water. All right, okay, all right, all right, all right, all right, that's enough. [MUSIC] Okay, so I'm gonna shake it off and I'm dry. Can you still hear me? Is the microphone still working? I think we're fine. I feel cold, but I'm not wet. There you go. It's totally waterproof. Thanks for watching Beta Test. I hope you liked this episode. Make sure to give it a thumbs up and subscribe, and I'll see you next time. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] This is crazy, woah. Woah. [LAUGH] Are you okay? Yeah, I'm fine. See, it nearly happened.