Nissan is bringing its ‘seal-healing’ technology to iPhone cases

There’s been a lot of buzz over the last couple of days about two separate companies that showed some pretty impressive technology at CES 2012 that promises to make your portable gadgets like the iPhone and possibly tablets waterproof; and I mean truly waterproof without making the gadgets harder to use.

The companies: HzO and Liquipel amazed more than a few tech company executives with their demonstrations that saw treated iPhones dropped into tanks of water and continue working like nothing was wrong.

Well it turns out that these aren’t the only companies looking to make using our portable gadgets a lot safer in a rough and tumble world as evidenced by Nissan’s announcement today.

Through a press release on their site Nissan announced that they will be introducing a case for the iPhone; and I imagine variations will also come to support other smartphones and gadget hardware, that will heal itself if damaged.

The cases are painted with a polyrotaxane material that is made with a chemical structure that is able to react and change back to its original shape and fill in any gaps thereby ‘healing’ the scratch or other type of “blemish”.

The Nissan Scratch Shield iPhone case has been designed using several automotive engineering innovations to deliver a more durable and long-lasting paint coat, and closely fitting, tight case. The case has three key benefits: the highly flexible and elastic properties of Scratch Shield paint technology allows fine scratches to quickly mend themselves**; its tactile gel-like rather than glossy surface is more scratch-resistant than conventional paint and provides a better grip; and the case itself is made of ABS plastic – a high grade substance widely used in the automotive industry which is more rigid and robust than other plastics. The outer ‘paint’ is made from polyrotaxane, which means that when damage occurs to the coating in the form of a fine scratch, the chemical structure is able to react to change back to its original shape and fill the gap – ‘healing’ the blemish.

An initial batch of prototypes of the innovative Scratch Shield iPhone cases has been produced by Nissan for BETA testing with selected journalists and customers, but if demand proves strong, it will look to put the cases on general sale later this year.

via Nissan Europe

Tie this in with the waterproofing and the next generation of Gorilla Glass from Corning and our smartphones could become next to indestructible.

via MobileSyrup / Verge