A nitinol-laced toothpaste tube which spools itself up when run under hot water.-- phoenix, Jan 12 2004 Use one of these http://www.drugstor...ste_tube_winder.htm [DrCurry, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] My favorite Nitinol engine http://bednorzmulle...ngines/demo532.html [kbecker, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] More NiTi technology http://scholar.lib....nrestricted/ETD.pdfThis could power a motorized toothpaste tube squeezer [kbecker, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004] whatever it is you're on at the moment, pass the bottle...-- po, Jan 12 2004 Mint Listerine!-- phoenix, Jan 12 2004 glug,splish, gurgle, spit,ting...-- po, Jan 12 2004 Can you make the bristles out of it too? My brush looks like a troll’s been using it.-- pluterday, Jan 12 2004 Prank folks by leaving it in the shower. Toothpaste claymore mine. :P-- Letsbuildafort, Jan 12 2004 Yeah, I'm not sure how much work you can get out of a Nitinol wire. Maybe it depends on the composition. I'm guessing that once the heat source is removed, the impetus to reform is, as well.-- phoenix, Jan 12 2004 Could you apply measuring tape technology to the tube so that as it empties it curls up on itself?-- k_sra, Jan 12 2004 Being a toothpaste neatness freak myself, and beset with a wife who only ever squeezes the middle, I long ago gave up on tubes, and now exclusively buy one or other of the non-tube options. My wife still always leaves the cap off, though.-- DrCurry, Jan 12 2004 Wow... I got a piece of Nitinol when Omni Magazine was giving them away back in 1983 or 1984 or so. Haven't heard a lot about it since then until now!-- mwburden, Jan 13 2004 mwb?-- po, Jan 13 2004 Does not have to be wire. The whole tube could be shape memory alloy, remembering a coiled shape. When the heat source is removed and the tube cools, the tube will relax, but not uncoil, unless some force is applied to effect its uncoiling. Note: super expensive, especially after FDA approval for food grade SMA.
But this would not only be for neat freaks. Neat freaks are only freaks when the amount of energy required to get the last bit of neatness is extraordinary. Now that it would be simple to maintain the neatness of the tube, and really extract all the toothpaste easily, everyone would be doing it. Except at several hundred dollars a tube, I guess this whole paragraph falls apart. Oh well.-- oxen crossing, Jan 14 2004 Sounds like you'll need a toothpaste tube recycling program. Switch out the dead ones to get a massive rebate.-- ye_river_xiv, May 14 2008 problem: the nitinol will curl the part of the tube which has the least amount of toothpaste in it... ie: the middle, where you've squeezed it.-- FlyingToaster, May 14 2008 Yeah, I'm not sure how much nitinol you'd need or if it'd even work. I just like the image of running the squashed tube under the tap and watching it curl right up.-- phoenix, May 14 2008 random, halfbakery