Almost every industry can benefit from Scroller Mechanics. The potential client market for Scroller Mechanical solutions is broad and diverse, from the manufacturer requiring a new solution for a machine design, to a better replacement for parts on existing machines.

I shall begin by targeting the gear-driven market because it contains most of the ScrollerWheel application requests.

IDS believes, based on the reaction of manufacturers and potential customers, that the marketing of Scroller designs around the world will be a fast ramp-up that will see their incorporation in many design solutions.

Link: List of Companies Contacting Us

There is enormous potential impact in industries such as medical technologies that rely on sterile equipment and extreme precision, or the space industry where grease fails to perform, or underwater, high altitude and many other extreme conditions. This is evident from the intense interest I have received from so many diverse companies looking for solutions to rotary mechanical and lubrication limitations.

Most Manufacturers and design firms can relate to the situation of having projects sitting unsolved because they could not find the appropriate component solutions. In many cases, the need to find a component is a very urgent one, as in the case of medical devices, safety devices, etc. With the extensive and in-depth database that has taken IDS almost three years of documentation to build, customers will be able to pinpoint design solutions with confidence.

Link: ScrollerWheel Section

When the story of the ScrollerWheel was published, especially in Business Week and the cover story in the prestigious American Machinist, I received hundreds of inquiries and technical questions as well as a flood of interest and congratulations poured in from manufacturers, distributors, end users, universities and engineering firms. Many requests for scroller applications came directly from the Chairmen, CEO's and VPs of major companies including several of the fortune 500.

Enquiries for Scroller Technology currently come from all over the world and reflect a need for an extensive variety of applications within a broad, untapped market. Most requests are for applications in which traditional mechanics fails to perform.

I am anxious to follow up on the expressions of interest I have received. While the interest of senior executives is heartening, these individuals are rarely the sole decision makers, and are often the first of many steps in the process of creating a partnership. When these executives "pat me on the back and hand me off to someone else", it's good news. How we proceed from there is the important issue.. This requires the ability to visit with prototypes in hand that reflect the applications they have in mind.

During the "Studio only" phase of IDS, the Tech Transfer functions were not yet in place, I told all interested people to please be patient while I finish the documentation and WebSite. I Would let them know when I am ready. The time has come with the launch of this new Commercial WebSite to replace the old Academic WebSites. That time is now.

Scroller Mechanics can replace many geared systems and can compete with several bearing applications.

Since this impacts so many industries, I feel it is best to first concentrate in those areas where traditional mechanical solutions fall short, so that there is less indirect competition. For example, no other solution can provide the accuracy in positioning. No other rotary mechanical solution is greaseless, therefore it can operate underwater, in chemical environments, in micro-gravity or sterile conditions where grease presents a serious problem.

• General drive systems in :
  • Bearings
  • Robotics joints and wheels
  • Speed reducerTransmissions
  • Planetaries
  
  
• Very dirty environments where grease becomes contaminated.
  • Caterpillar tracks [very dirty]
  • Farm equipment bearings and planetaries
  
  
• High Torque applications where the huge degree of contact is far better than the 2-tooth capacity of geared options.
  • Twisting casings in oil wells
  • Locomotives and "Rolling Stock"
  • Drums used for mining tailings
  
  
• Super clean environments where grease is a contaminant.
  • Conveyors [including clean rooms in microchip factories]
  • Sterile Medical Equipment [grease free parts
  
  
• Extremely fine positioning where the backlash caused by gaps needed for grease cannot be tolerated.
  • Microscopes [fine positioning]
  • Radar [super-fine positioning]
  
  
• Spark free conditions where rubbing, slipping and sliding can cause danger.
  • Mining equipment bearings [no sparks when no grease]
  • Chemical environments
  
  
• High speed precision needs.
  • Spindles in Machining equipment [high speed precision]
  
  
• Micro-gravity where grease floats away
  • Satellite hinges [micro-gravity]
  
  
• Extreme environments for bearings or drive-systems
  • very hot that grease can't tolerate
  • underwater that grease can't tolerate

NO possibility of obsolescence because the technology is based on a new mechanical PRINCIPLE. The development of technologies based on this patented method of motion is ongoing.

Pulleys and belts are readily available wordwide from a wide selection of manufacturers and suppliers. Specific belting needs to be designed for specific applications as per the loads, temperatures, etc. Several belting companies have expressed an eagerness to be involved in this process as the market for applications develops. The Scroller was featured in their Belting Association trade magazine

Link: NIBA (National Industrial Belting Association) Article

Because the drive market is so huge, IDS-Development will begin by concentrating on those areas which require an accuracy, a lube-free nature, and a load distribution that traditional mechanics has failed to provide.

Just as the U.S. patent for the ScrollerWheel was approved and even before it was issued, Business Week magazine broke the news, followed by several other business publications.

ScrollerWheel technology went on to be featured in Design News and was quickly followed by a 4-page cover article in the premiere mechanical magazine, American Machinist. Several other articles have since been published, even in Chinese. Mcgraw-Hill is including it college textbooks.

Link: ScrollerWheel Articles

Since I own the intellectual property rights for this mechanical principle, there can be no direct competitors to Scroller Mechanics. There will always be indirect yet inferior competition.

It is indeed exciting to be at the beginning of the birth of a new industry. Traditional mechanics offers indirect competition only. In some areas such as conditions hostile to grease or in applications that require extreme precision, there is no competion from traditional mechanics.

This is the first time in history that an almost PURE rolling motion has been achieved. Because the solution allows many mechanical systems to be designed without the need for grease, I expect it to have a deep and lasting penetration into the mechanical market in general, but especially in those areas where load distribution, grease or a lack of precision is a problem. The interest in this solution has thus been overwhelming. There is no doubt that the Gear and Bearing Industries will be transformed by this new design option.

It is the wide scope of functions that makes it difficult to limit the potential of Scroller Mechanics.

... Scroller Mechanics can replace :

1. Most Geared-Systems

• quieter
• better load distribution over a large surface area
• does not have 2-tooth contact limitations
• completely lube-free
• far higher degree of accuracy

.... planetary replacement, hi-torque .....

2. Bearing applications

• grease free applications able to use grease-sensitive materials.
• far better load distribution over a huge surface area.

.... medical equipment, electronics, underwater, micro-gravity ....

3. High-precision drive applications.

• no gaps needed for grease means NO backlash.
• If you move it a micron, it moves only a micron

.... microscopes, radar positioning ....

In Scroller Mechanics, IDS controls the intellectual property rights for the method of this mechanical principle. There can be no direct competitors. Indirect competion exists within the gear, bearing and belted-systems industries.

I have solved a puzzle that existed since the discovery of mechanics - how to harness pure rolling motion. The linear rolamite design, from Sandia Atomic Labs in the 1960's, is considered the spring board to Scroller Mechanics. Nobody had been able to "crack the code" until Scroller Mechanics was discovered.

Scroller Mechanics is a patented method of creating motion. This new mechanical principle is as basic as the bearing, cam or pulley and ushers in a broad new field that provides a new way of thinking about, looking at, and designing with mechanics. The ScrollerWheel principle offers many clean, smooth, quiet, cool and more reliable alternatives to conventional greasy mechanics and a broad new range of mechanical design options that no other method can match.

In Scroller-Mechanics, although parts move in opposite directions, their surfaces move in the same direction, ELIMINATING the rubbing between parts. As it rolls, all surfaces scroll in the same direction at exactly the same surface speed. The principle is based on surface, not radius, thereby even accepting of deforming pressures/loads of the entire assembly .... yet still rotate with no rubbing, sliding or slipping.

The Scroller principle defies friction by eliminating the source of slipping, sliding and rubbing. Belts simply pick up and lay down on the rollers, leaving only minor levels of rolling friction in mechanical systems.

There is full surface contact between parts for a smooth and quiet motion, by-passing the friction and inaccuracy sources that cause noise.

Mechanics can run clean, cool and lube-free, by-passing friction, vibration and wear making it the perfect alternative to conventional greasy mechanics.

With mechanics free of the limiting factors of grease or friction, a wider range of materials are available that were previously unsuitable because of grease limitations. Fabrics, porous options and laminates can now be used.

Scroller Mechanics offers a far wider range of operating conditions where grease is undesirable.

• underwater
• Micro sizes- where grease acts as an adhesive
• Macro sizes- where grease slides off large surfaces
• Load - grease is displaced by pressure
• Sterile conditions
• extreme temperature conditions
• High altitude
• Chemical environments

Scroller Mechanics does not suffer from the built-in inaccuracies that limits grease dependent mechanics, providing a backlash-free accuracy that traditional rolling-mechanics cannot

The ScrollerWheel principle exhibits ideal load distribution without any backlash. It provides a huge degree of surface contact that traditional rolling-mechanics CANNOT provide.

The lack of grease means cleaner maintenance and a cleaner machine environment.

Less expensive to manufacture because it does not involve the heavy machinery overhead and high energy costs of stamping and forging operations inherent in gear and bearing manufacturing.

Less expensive to operate because lower friction means lower energy consumption and the lack of grease offers maintenance savings.

Link: ScrollerWheel Section