"BioSpalt" bionically inspired cleaning of technical gaps

With technical sealings it's not possible to completely prevent dust intruding into technical gaps. This is especially true for gaps between two parts of a device, oscillation relatively to each other. Moreover, once intruded into the gap, it is very unlikely that dirt will be removed again. This is because particle transport with conventional sealings has no preferred direction. Instead, dirt is only moved back and forth with the periodic movement of the device.

Inspired by the hump beatle, the invention presents an optimized structuring of one of the two surfaces moving against each other and an advantageous brush geometry for the opposite surface. Flat inclined planes of the structured surface enable particles to be transported with little effort into one direction. The steep edge on the other side allows the particles to be wiped off and prevents them from being transported back. This reults in a "net" particle movement along a preferred direction and out of the gap between the device's periodically moving parts.