What is MR Fluid
Looking at it in a beaker, MR fluid doesn’t seem like such a revolutionary substance. It’s a gray, oily liquid that’s about three times denser than water. It’s not too exciting at first glance, but MR fluid is actually quite amazing to watch in action. A simple demonstration by David Carlson, a physicist at the North Carolina lab, shows the liquid’s ability to transform to solid in milliseconds. He pours the liquid into the cup and stirs it around with a pencil to show it’s liquid. He then places a magnet to the bottom of the cup, and the liquid instantly turns to a near-solid. To further demonstrate that it’s turned to a solid, he holds the cup upside down, and none of the MR fluid drops out. Typical MR fluid consists of these three parts: • Carbonyl Iron Particles 20 to 40 percent of the fluid is made of these soft iron particles that are just 3 to 5 micrometers in diameter. A package of dry carbonyl iron particles looks like black flour because the particles are so fine. • A Carrier
