...Under Dr. Pillay’s guidance, (click here) zoo staff placed layer after layer of carbon fiber on the tusk, surrounding the crack. Under typical industrial solutions, they would have painted each layer with an epoxy to create a good bond. “That would be too time-consuming for working with a live animal,” Sim said. Instead they used a vacuum pump to suck the epoxy out of a bucket and then inject it into the carbon fibers, which quickly absorbed the materials and in just three minutes created a hard, strong, impermeable shell....
