No-Scratch: The Self-Healing iPhone

Annoyed when your iPhone scratches? Well get mad no longer, thanks to Nissan’s nifty scratch shield iPhone case.

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The “ground breaking” case uses innovations from the auto world to create the most robust iPhone case in the world, with Nissan’s “self-healing” paint, and works with the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4 S.

The plastic case can repair small scratches in as little as an hour, but more severe cases can take up to a week, say Nissan.

The scratch shield paint is a ‘world first’ in paint technology that allows fine scratches to mend themselves, originally used on automotives (including Nissan Murano, 370Z and X-Trail) but now has been transferred for use on the first non-automotive device, the iPhone.

Nissan’s clever iPhone case is made from ABS plastic – a high grade substance used in the automotive industry to create a more robust, tighter-fit.

The outer ‘paint’ is made from polyrotaxane, a chemical structure is able to react to change back to its original shape, ‘healing’ the blemish when damage occurs.

Additional benefits include scratch-resistant surface and is easier-to-grip than normal smartphones, thanks to its gel-like, (rather than glossy) surface.

However, don’t go running to your nearest Apple Store or Nissan’s dealer  just yet –  the car makers are still testing the prototypes created.

If demand proves strong, however, it will put the cases on general sale later this year, Nissan confirmed today.

“We like to think laterally by taking the great innovations we’ve got from an automotive point of view, and looking at how they could be applied to improve everyday issues. Bob Laishley, Nissan, Europe.

“The Scratch Shield iPhone case is a great example of us taking a Nissan automotive technology that has had a huge impact for our customers, and then shifting the boundaries to apply it to another everyday product.”