MythBuster Jamie Hyneman is now working with actuator maker Bimba Manufacturing on actuator research and new-product ideas.
MythBuster Jamie Hyneman speaking with Design World Executive Editor Leland Teschler.
Hyneman, cohost of the popular MythBusters program on the Discovery Channel, will officially serve as Bimba’s Director of Strategic Development, a role, he says, that will involve interacting with Bimba’s engineers and R&D team. Hyneman says he has worked with Bimba pneumatic actuators for years and has a “rack full of them” in his shop. Hyneman’s company, MS Industries, not only makes props and effects for entertainment venues, but also works with industrial companies on a variety of special projects. Among the more recent ones was the construction of dummies with extensive realistic wounds for training U.S. Army medics.
Hyneman says Bimba actuators have played a role in a number of Mythbuster episodes. One of the more notable appearances involved determining whether cell phones can cause explosions when used near a gas pump. (The MythBusters decided they can’t.) In the course of testing various scenarios involving static electricity, the crew used a Bimba actuator to drag fabric back and forth across a surface in a container filled with gas fumes. The result was a fairly impressive explosion.
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