New Piston Design Features Soft, Flexible Materials

Conventional pistons are made of a rigid chamber and a piston inside that can slide along the chamber’s inner wall while at the same time maintaining a tight seal. As a result, the piston divides two spaces that are filled with two fluids and connected to two exterior fluid sources. If the fluids have different pressures, the piston will slide into the direction with the lower pressure and can, at the same time, drive the movement of a shaft or other device to do physical work. This principle has been used to design many machines including piston engines, hydraulic lifters and cranes such as those used on construction sites, and power tools.