Zero friction freestanding attachment chain transport
Free-floating attachment chains have no direct contact to surrounding surfaces and
Van der Waals force drops off very very rapidly off with distance.
Strong dipoles and actual charges can be much longer range but those can be avoided.
Thus due to almost completely absent interactions with the surrounding environment
transport via free standing attachment chains can be pretty much completely friction free.
Well, as long as there is no interaction needed like in molecular mills.
Sprockets at the end of the transport chains and associated friction losses of course cannot be avoided.
Where this may be employable
In transport channels crossing sub-layers and in routing laysers.
See: Optimal sublayernumber for minimal friction
Spanning length
A question is: How long a transport chain can be made freestanding.
Since it's nanoscale sagging from gravity is not an issue.
As are pretty much all but the most extreme jerks from external shocks.
Dynamic stability: Excitation of resonant waves in the chain may be of concern.
Especially with transport typically running at faster speeds than assembly.
Related
- Transport channels, Routing layer
- Optimal sublayernumber for minimal friction
- Batch transport for reduction of friction losses
Not applicable to Bottom scale assembly lines in gem-gum factories where
lots of densely packed physical interaction is required like in molecular mills.
