[Mike Everman]

I'm happy to say that Alex Slocum is a friend, and I have a great deal of respect for him. He would know of any practical application(s) for sure. Be patient, it may take a while for a response.

[Torque1st]

I feel a great many "Discoveries" are used for many years, maybe even centuries, before someone has the time available or "nothing else to do" and writes them up formally thereby taking credit for the "Discovery".

That also brings up the subject of the many "Patents" that never should have been issued but that is another story...

[dsquire]

I feel a great many "Discoveries" are used for many years, maybe even centuries, before someone has the time available or "nothing else to do" and writes them up formally thereby taking credit for the "Discovery".

That also brings up the subject of the many "Patents" that never should have been issued but that is another story...

Torque1st

Ain't that the truth, on both points.

Cheers

Don

[Mike Everman]

I feel a great many "Discoveries" are used for many years, maybe even centuries, before someone has the time available or "nothing else to do" and writes them up formally thereby taking credit for the "Discovery".

That also brings up the subject of the many "Patents" that never should have been issued but that is another story...

Ha ha One of my favorite debates. But not so much now that I'm up to 8 patents that aren't worth a cup of warm p... oh, family forum.
I like the old argument about whether everything has been invented already or not. Insert response numbers 5 and 13 here. ha
True, though, seems like you can patent a rock these days.

When it comes to innovation in mechanisms, pick up one of the "ingenious mechanisms" volumes and have a humbling experience. If you can't find your idea in there, you're fairly sure to have something patentable.

[dsquire]

Ha ha One of my favorite debates. But not so much now that I'm up to 8 patents that aren't worth a cup of warm p... oh, family forum.
I like the old argument about whether everything has been invented already or not. Insert response numbers 5 and 13 here. ha
True, though, seems like you can patent a rock these days.

When it comes to innovation in mechanisms, pick up one of the "ingenious mechanisms" volumes and have a humbling experience. If you can't find your idea in there, you're fairly sure to have something patentable.

Hi Mike

I have been on your site and saw some of your products and was quite impressed. I have also been following several of the threads that you have been participating in on CNCzone.

I guess that you can patent most anything these days, string 2 words together and its copyrighted. Figure out a different way to use some existing product and you can patent it.

I have looked at a few of the books showing some of these mechanisms and it is mind boggling how they ever came up with them, but they worked.

Cheers

Don

[Torque1st]

Interesting article:
http://www.edn.com/article/CA6594114...&rid=189246811

[Art Ransom]

Need sugestions on material for band, I will need one 13'. I am thinking 1" wide.

[halverson.peter]

The applications that I am aware of are Military and I cannot speak of the details of such matters....

I promised myself I wouldn't get into this... I'm actually a big fan of the rolamite and I think the scroller is pretty cool. However Erik, your company, IDS, is a Canadian based company, your scroller patent was issued while you were living in Canada. So my question is, how does a Canadian get access to a US national laboratory and privy to military secrets so secret that he cannot talk about them to this day? Have we really gotten that lax in our security? I realize that sandia publishes certain manuscripts, in fact I have the "Rolamite - Geometry and Force Analysis [SC-RR-68-223]" report sitting in my bookcase but once published they are no longer secrets.

[Mike Everman]

Hi Guys,
Just thought I'd mention a patent of mine that's a Rollamite-esque flexure, not really for long travel rotary to linear driving, rather a completely flexure based short travel bearing with zero backlash and zero rolling friction. Here's a paper I wrote about it.

[halverson.peter]

Mike,

Did you say you had a patent on it? Is the patent on a positioning system or on the wrapped flexure system?

I believe an identical flexure system was shown in N. P. Chironis and N. Sclater, Mechanisms and Mechanical Devices Sourcebook. McGraw-Hill, 1996.

[Mike Everman]

Yes, you're referring to page 184. The use of wrapped bands or ropes as a rotary to linear converter or torque increase predates gears by a millennium at least. My use of wide bands as a frictionless, linear bearing with no rubbing or rolling contact, capable of keeping two planes parallel within 1arcsec is to my knowledge, unique. If you find it, then I will owe you a beer!

The downside is that there is basically one type of customer for this and ultimately a very small market (predominately semiconductor metrology). I've considered using lower fidelity versions for the elevator tables of rapid prototyping systems, but not pursued it much. I did make a one flexure element like this with a 350mm travel though, which was pretty cool. The roll tube was two feet long and 4" in diameter. The bands were .010" half hard stainless 301. Hellishly stiff in moment and shear.

[NEATman]

Perhaps this was already mentioned, but the more I see of this concept the more I think of a childs toy - Does anyone remember the jacobs ladder?
http://www.woodcraftarts.com/jacob.htm
Seems to be a rolamite with rectangular sections, and triple bands. Plus I love the thought that there may have been one in King Tut's tomb.

Keith
NEATman

[bsdphk]

One of the places the rolamite is used[1] is in the firing circuits of the B61 mod 11 earth penetrating nuclear bomb, where it is used to detect deceleration.

Poul-Henning

[1] Admittedly, they're not seing much *actual* use, but they are used nontheless.

[Art Ransom]

After all this time I am going to try the rolamite as the driving mechanism on a 4' by 4' laser engraver. The laser gantry will be under 5 lbs and 800 IPM. Probably use a rubber based flat belt unless I can find appropiate metal band.

[Mike Everman]

McMaster has 301SS half hard and full hard in various thicknesses and widths and you can get a spool of it. I've had a spool of .5" wide x .003" thick for a long time and it really comes in handy. It's a perfect material for this. Fatigue strength will be the thing that needs close consideration when it comes to tension and the radius of your rollers.

[Erik Brinkman]

The information in the link is from Popular Science (March 1966) - I would think that if it is as good as they claim, someone would have made some use of it in the last 42 years.

The Rolamite is used as the safety for the trigger on Nukes.
it is also used in your car's airbag.

The problem with the Rolamite
is that is needs to made very precise in its little box.
It is totally reliable though.
It has been named the 26th "Fundamental Mechanism of Mechanics"
Quite a big deal.

Part of that need for precision means it uses Copper Berillium for its bands.
When Copper Berillium is machined it gives off a fine dust
that can cause cancer.

Lunch over.
Sorry I have meetings so not more time to post.
Haven't posted for over a year
but one of my people is getting abused on another forum
and emailed and mentioned that this forum was indirectly mentioned
so I thought I'd pop in and see if I could help clear anything up.

[Erik Brinkman]

After all this time I am going to try the rolamite as the driving mechanism on a 4' by 4' laser engraver. The laser gantry will be under 5 lbs and 800 IPM. Probably use a rubber based flat belt unless I can find appropiate metal band.

Try this ...
http://www.scrollermechanics.com/Home.html

It is the full field of which the Rolamite is a linear part.

A complete booklet on the field is a free download

http://scrollermechanics.com/Documen..._Mechanics.pdf

[Erik Brinkman]

I promised myself I wouldn't get into this... I'm actually a big fan of the rolamite and I think the scroller is pretty cool. However Erik, your company, IDS, is a Canadian based company, your scroller patent was issued while you were living in Canada. So my question is, how does a Canadian get access to a US national laboratory and privy to military secrets so secret that he cannot talk about them to this day? Have we really gotten that lax in our security? I realize that sandia publishes certain manuscripts, in fact I have the "Rolamite - Geometry and Force Analysis [SC-RR-68-223]" report sitting in my bookcase but once published they are no longer secrets.

Interesting story.
Being who I am, I have special contacts all over the R&D world.
My clearance is not the issue though.
It is still nearly impossible because of the nuke paranoia.
I have special contacts at Sandia
and yet even then the report disappeared several times from his desk
before he could scrub it and send it to me.

I was important to me and to all responsible people involved
that some specific pages be removed before sending it across the border.

Four times the report "disappeared" before it could be sent.
He had to eventually go into Red Mountain himself
and get a copy, scrubbed it himself and sent it all in one day.

As a result I got the report 8 months after my original request.
Some pages missing, (not that I didn't know how to make a nuke already).
Then the fear was that it would be grabbed at the border
because of where it came from.

I was visited, my phone monitored and mail monitored for a while
until they were convinced that I was one of the good guys.

My contact was offered early retirement.
They are very thorough.
All good.

[Erik Brinkman]

[quote=Mike Everman;499357][QUOTE=Erik Brinkman;499243]If you look at the documentation, the Society of Mechanical Engineering called the Rolamite the 25th "Fundamental Mechanism of Mechanics". The 24th was the clutch some 300 years prior. The ScrollerWheel was named the 26th, although I feel it is simply the rotary version of the 25th. Do they not teach this stuff in school ? This is talked about in Sandia's Research Report. Basic mechanics 101 .... hardly "heady stuff".

Erik, it seems I must use a complicated system of levers and pulleys to bring your sense of humor into the light. Lighten up, man. Not everything is an attack. And not many in this crowd are going to take being called a layman well.

Not addressing this crowd when speaking of "laymen". No offense intended.
Am frustrated though that schools are so busy teaching the past,
that they forget to begin with the present.

[Erik Brinkman]

Much ado about nothing comes to mind...

The claims read like a lot of perpetual motion devices to me. In other words; -BS.

Just my 2¢

THERE IS A VIDEO

http//www.ScrollerMechanics.com