Malleable Metal Question

[gorgean]

Is there a metal or metal alloy that I could wire into a very long shoelace to prevent accidental knotting of the shoe lace. It should have the properties of not being brittle so that no matter how many times it's bent at a certain point is doesn't snap and also be malleable/soft enough to maintain the function of a shoelace.

 

[BiPolarMoment]

Velcro.

I don't understand how the metal wire would prevent accidental knotting--or what accidental knotting is.

Are you wanting to tie shoes with pipe cleaners?

I think the short answer is probably no, just due to the "no matter how many times" specification.

 

[gorgean]

By accidental knotting, i meant accidental tangling of shoelaces, wires etc.. Could I not just put a malleable metal wire which retains the shape its bent into, in with an electric wire, rubber insulate it all and then have wires which dont tangle because they need to actively be moulded into a tangle?

 

[BiPolarMoment]

Well.. sure, but if it's a standard type solid core wire that you are repeatedly deforming at the same point it will eventually break and lose resiliency at that fracture. When is going to depend highly on what frequency you are talking about.

There are probably some metals out there that would have a marked lessened tendency to break under repeated bending, but I don't know much about them. Obviously really ductile stuff like gold and aluminum.

Does it need to be a metal wire?

Alternatively, there are form-holding close-ended polymer tubes filled with granules that may serve the purpose depending on the bend angles and required diameter. We have some of these for rod templates. It's a soft plastic cylinder (in our case, 5.5mm diameter by 200 long) filled with--I believe--alumina particles. At least in that case it wouldn't be the metal breaking--it's already in millions of pieces.

 

[weldtek]

Bailing wire?

 

[gorgean]

I was wondering if there was any way, i could modify my the wire of my personal stereo headphones so that they are rigid enough not to tangle, but malleable enough to still be comfortable as a headphone cable

 

[amorrison]

"coiled telephone cord"

http://images.google.ca/images?q=coiled+telephone+cord&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images

 

[gorgean]

I'm looking more for something that is straight not coiled, but has a degree of rigidity so as not to allow for a tangle unless the wire is physically manipulated (think pipecleaner) into that tangle. But also malleable enough to be still considered a wire and not a pipe! lol

 

[amorrison]

Search for "gooseneck"

gooseneck microphone
gooseneck lamp
gooseneck probe

see

http://images.google.ca/images?q=gooseneck&hl=en&btnG=Search+Images