Why don't we use high pressure fluid, inflateing cranes. It would provide unmatched flexability in confined spaces and would be environmentally sensitive in locations where zero ground disturbance is a goal. The arm would be made up of seperate gas cells each with an individual valve to control the length of the arm, the interlocking sectional system can be customized to any shape or size. . And even the swivle portion could be inflatable, a series of wedge shaped gas cells lined up together to control the angle. It will allow for delicate grading and sloping. And will be easy-to-operate machines.
(I know it sounds wierd but this is the halfbakery)-- wood2coal, Jan 25 2002 Self-explanatory idea names. http://www.halfbake...a_20names#993424797Something this idea is NOT. [StarChaser, Jan 27 2002, last modified Oct 04 2004] Croissant! I love inflatables. And it would probably work. Inflatable devices are one promising way of creating artificial limbs that act as if they had muscles - scale that up and you've got your crane.-- quarterbaker, Jan 25 2002 inflatable crone for old wizards-- po, Jan 25 2002 A mini scale version of this exists of course, it's possible to buy an inflatable jack for 4x4s / trucks that uses exhaust gas to lift the vehicle off the floor, and the fire service use a similar thing in rescue situations.. Nevertheless, Great Idea.. have a croissant-- Gran Tade, Jan 25 2002 Are you talking hydraulics or pneumatics?-- seal, Jan 26 2002 Anything that would be able to change shape under the hydraulics you mention first or the pneumatics you switch to thereafter would not be able to support the weight of something at the long end of a crane-sized boom due to the leverage. Gran Trade's gas-jack is more like a giant marshmallow with a hose and is used in expansion rather than compression.-- StarChaser, Jan 27 2002 A sex toy for zoophiles?-- Zircon, Jan 27 2002 exactly, except it was the humane version that gave me the idea.
And Starchaser I am well aware of the simple mechanics of tension and compression. And I know that realisticly this is not a practicle idea. But I have been reading some of the other ideas around this page, and have realised that this is not a website for realistic ideas, or for realistic people. So I decided to just layback and talk about crap ideas like everybody else.-- wood2coal, Feb 01 2002 <sigh> Again, this is NOT a site for crap ideas.
This is actually a reasonable idea, up until that last annotation. It won't work, though. At least it didn't involve nanites or other such magic.
If you want to post crap ideas, I suggest you go take a look at the WWW, it being a vast repository of same. The Halfbakery is NOT for crap ideas.-- StarChaser, Feb 02 2002 random, halfbakery