Saturday, November 9, 2013

Gel Water Beads Are In A Lot Of Products

By Alyce Powell


New inventions are developed every day almost. When new things come out, the people who come up with the ideas on how to use them get to work. Such was the situation when gel water beads were invented. They were developed because the USDA was looking for new ways to conserve water in soil. What they did was almost change an entire industry.

The problem with those materials was that they got very heavy and very large when they got wet. Not only that, but they could only hold a certain amount of liquids. Once they got beyond capacity the liquid would just no longer be absorbed and it would leak. Sometimes the material that was holding the liquid and now full would also leak.

This sort of defeated the purpose of absorbing the liquids because it could not keep anything or anybody dry. Along came the gel water beads. Born from a superabsorbent polymer because the USDA was looking for ways to improve liquid conservation in soils. These gels became made from various materials and used in various ways.

What that meant was whenever they were full of liquid, if you added any more they would either leak themselves or completely loss their absorbency and you would get liquid everywhere. This was not the case with the polymers. They would retain their water not matter how much more was made to come in contact with them.

When more liquid was introduced they would simply reject it without losing what they already held. This meant that the polymers would be the new star of the liquid world because they worked better than anything else like it before. New ways were discovered to store water for farmers in drought and for the medical industry as well.

So many new products were invented or improved because of these polymers. Money was made and the amount of good that was done with them was amazing. Take the medical industry for instance. New ways were discovered to make hot and cold packs that would not be dangerous if the broke open. No longer were dangerous chemicals needed for various other applications as well.

Fire retardant materials and chemicals were made that would not harm the people wearing or using them and new ways were discovered to bring liquid to those who needed it without having to worry about losing it. It was used in various toys that could grow in liquids from small beans to very large dinosaurs. It was amazing the amount of products that came from this one invention.

Gel water beads have found their way into a large variety of products both in the consumer realm as well as the military and medical fields as well. There are so many ways they could be used that there are still new products coming out all the time that utilize this technology. It is not even that old as these polymers have only been around in this form for about a decade. The real interesting thought is to wonder what will come next. The future holds some great things for such products and for us as well.




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