Energy binder

This article is about the Podracer component. You may be looking for the prisoner restraint.

"Hey, Jar Jar! keep away from those energy binders. If your hand gets caught in the beam, it's gonna go numb for hours."

―Anakin Skywalker to Jar Jar Binks^[1]

An energy binder was a band of electromagnetic energy cast in an arc between two small generators. They were jagged, throbbing, purple arcs of an unknown energy, and were commonly used on Podracers, to connect a racer's engines and stop them from flying off in opposite directions.

Energy binders were useful in this regard as they were flexible and could be shut off with a switch in the cockpit, instead of having to uncouple the devices. However, energy binders would fail to work if the engines were pulled apart too far, as demonstrated on Ben Quadinaros's BT410 Podracer during the Boonta Eve Classic. This particular racer used two sets of energy binders to hold four engines together.

Although energy binders did not seem to do permanent damage when they came into contact with body parts, they could stun nerves and cause limbs and any other related body parts to go numb for a period of time.

They were used as trade goods as well.