Active self-healing wire insulation

Electrical, optical and hydraulic conductors are vital components of most modern engineered systems. Damage to wiring and other conductors can degrade system performance, require expensive maintenance, and may cause catastrophic failures. This paper describes some efforts at developing active methods for self-healing wiring and conductor insulation. The concept is that there may be situations where it is beneficial to use self-healing cabling. One-part and two-part self-healing systems are fabricated and tested. Localized toughening in the face of localized damage has been realized in bench top experiments.