Abstract: The present invention provides a seating apparatus that may be easily moved to a desired location and that becomes immobile when in use. The seating apparatus includes a chair that is connected to a wheel assembly by a spring assembly. In a preferred embodiment, the chair includes a generally upwardly extending chair back, a seat combined with the chair back, and a pedestal-type base coupled to the seat and extending generally downwardly, the spring assembly includes at least one spring or other compressible device, and the wheel assembly includes a number of wheels or the like. When the chair is in use, the weight of the user will cause the spring assembly to compress, resulting in the base of the chair resting on the ground. The combination of the user's weight and the frictional force between the ground and the bottom of the base will result in the chair being immobile while occupied.

Abstract: A prepreg material infused with a bulk resin, where the bulk resin has shape memory alloy (SMA) particles intermixed in the resin to toughen the material when the material is used in an application and is cured. The SMA particles may be of various shapes and sizes. The material may form a prepreg fabric having interwoven fibers or a prepreg unidirectional tape having fibers oriented unidirectionally. Opposing surfaces of the material may be infused with quantities of bulk resin having different concentrations of SMA particles. The SMA particles may be mixed in the bulk resin while in their austenitic or martensitic states to suit the needs of specific applications.