We all know the Mandrillus leucophaeus : You go to brush your teeth and , upon reaching for the toothpaste tube , notice it ’s intimately empty . But some part of you knows there ’s enough in there for at least one more brushing . You squeeze from the bottom of the electron tube , desperately hop just one little drop curtain of Crest will emerge .
Or how about this one : You sit down to a hot shell of french fry only to find that , by the time you ’ve hit the catsup bottle hard enough to create enough of the condiment to coat about three child , they ’ve get inhuman . How much time lay waste to ? How much food wasted ? ! The conflict is existent , and it ’s a surprise no one has done anything about it until now .
EnterLiquiGlide , the inspiration of MIT dropout David Smith . He heard our distress calls and has answer them with a tops - slippery coating that makes any viscous fabric — from toothpaste to peanut butter to wood glue — menstruate easily from a bottleful . No more do-or-die tube - squeezing or fierce bottle - shaking . Watch :
The LiquiGlide coating serves as a slippery buffer between a open and a fluid fabric . Smith and LiquiGlide ’s president , Carsten Boers , describethe stuff as a “ structured liquid ” that is “ rigid like a solid , but it ’s lubricated like a liquid . ” It can be spray on a surface to make it permanently fuddled .
But if we ’re go to be put this magical material in our ketchup bottles , can we be sure it ’s safe to consume ? Smith and Boers are closelipped about the exact formula for LiquiGlide ( “ we ’ve patented the inferno out of it ” ) , but say it ’s odorless , tasteless , and made of non - toxic FDA - approved materials . “ The stuff we use for the food coatings are real food , ” BoerstoldFast Company .
This week , the company announce an exclusive licensing understanding withElmer ’s Products Inc. , the makers of every preschool Thomas Kid ’s favorite craft adhesive agent . “ We surely see a hazard for a competitive advantage , ” Anthony Spath , associate director for introduction and business maturation at Elmer’s , toldTheNew York Times .
Here ’s LiquiGlide at work on a bottle of mucilage :
“ They really deal more product — as the consumer always mete out a full dosage , they in reality empty the product faster than without the coating , ” Boerssaid . “ It ’s an surpassing win - win : the consumer gets the ware out easier and the stigma sells more . ”
LiquiGlide ’s end , away from making all our life a little bit easier , is to reduce waste . They figure they could save rough one million stacks of intellectual nourishment from being befuddle away each yr if every sauce feeding bottle were fit with a level of LiquiGlide ’s coat . And the fabric has other possible applications , too , like preventing clog dancing in oil word of mouth , keeping windshield crystal clear , and better medical equipment . It can also do wonders for save every last drop of paint in a bottleful , and has licensed its engineering to a packaging company in Australia with this idea in mind .
The undivided deal with Elmer’swill in all probability be temporaryto keep with LiquiGlide ’s goal of subdue permissive waste on a large scale . A LiquiGlide - treated mayonnaise bottle and a toothpaste tube could be on the market by 2017 , and Smithsayshe expects his slippery excogitation “ to be omnipresent ” in a few years .
