Thank you for your interest in the Scroller Wheel. When we received our patent and the resulting media attention, we had barely started on our documentations. Finally, the documentation and WebSite are finished and we are ready for a full "show and tell".

In 1967 Sandia National Labs stunned the world by creating the first new "Fundamental Mechanism in 350 years .... the linear "rolamite".

Link: Historical Comparison

Three years ago we stunned the world by making it rotary. With a greaseless rotary mechanism we created the potential for replacing existing dirty, greasy geared systems with clean, greaseless belted systems.

All surfaces that touch, move in the same direction at the same surface speed. The surfaces move smoothly WITH each other, rather than rub AGAINST each other, eliminating the need for grease. For the first time in history, Rotary mechanical motion is created with virtually no rubbing between parts. A US patent has been issued for the METHOD of this new mechanical geometry. This field we call "Scroller Mechanics" based on the ScrollerWheel principle.

Link: ScrollerWheel Section

Link: ScrollerWheel Articles

Business Week broke the story. Other business publications picked it up including the Associated Press [AP]. It has also been featured in newspapers all over the world and in many mechanical magazines such as Design News and Machine Design. Scroller Technology was featured as the cover-story in the world's most prestigeous mechanical magazine, American Machinist. McGraw-Hill has already begun including the inventor in its college text books.

The Inventor refused to give a personal interview to any media for several reasons ....

• First
  He wanted the media to focus on the real story of the technology and not segue into a people story. He didn't like the idea of the media doing stories on him because "the invention is what is important. Inventors come and go, but the creations are what matters".

• Second
  He simply wanting privacy so his work would not be interrupted. That is the reason why he refused a picture as well. He later allowed a picture to McGraw-Hill because it was for a text book. He felt it was important to students to see the people behind stories. McGraw-Hill was kind enough to allow the picture to be morphed such that if you saw him, you would know it was him, but if you had not seen him, you would not make the connection.

The Smithsonian has asked to do an exhibit of ScrollerWheel Mechanics at the "Lemelson Center For The Study of Invention and Innovation" in the National Museum of American History.

With a progression series, they can tell a story. Museum exhibits are all about "telling a story". They wish to show several commercial applications so they can show and talk about the scope and future of Scrolling Mechanical Motion.

After several commercial quality prototypes are constructed, they shall be donated for the Smithsonian Exhibit.

Public reaction was temendous. The phone rang without interruption for weeks after each article was published. Most everyone either called to congratulate or to ask about investment possibilities.

The only negative responses were a few who thought what we did was a lucky fluke. To counter that kind of thinking, we made 2 more completely unrelated releases.

A couple of people called and didn't believe it could actually do what we said, so we put a video up on the WebSite, hoping that seeing is believing [the video has been shortened from some 8 megs to 3 megs so it makes for a reasonable download].

It is true that it seems counter-intuitive. We, for example sent a broomstick and paper model to both Business Week and American Machinist so they could better appreciate how odd it feels in the hand as it rotates.

As a result of all the publicity, we have received very enthusiastic responses. Chairmen, CEO's, Research VP's, Marketing VP's and Engineers and hundreds of major manufacturers and distributors have expressed serious interest in using and/or selling scroller technology.

Link: Companies that Contacted Us

Link: Lists of Versions, Applications etc.

We received many questions, often similar and the need for detailed documentation was becoming evident. We slowly and carefully documented the field.

When people called to ask for Scrollers, we explained that we were still in the initial documentation stage and not yet ready to do business. We asked to please be patient and "go make some and play with them" and we would let them know when we were ready. This was not the response they expected.

We received letters from people who had difficulty making a ScrollerWheel. Someone tried to make one with ELASTIC vacuum cleaner belts. This was frustrating for us, realizing we had a lot more explaining to do than anticipated.

The motion of Scroller Mechanics is difficult to envision from static pictures. Proving that the principle works and showing it with a graphic or photo-video does not have the same emotional impact as feeling it's unusual movement in hand. It is not simple and intuitive to explain.

Since it is important to have it in your hand in order to appreciate it, one thing we want to offer is an inexpensive model[such as a key-ring], that we can send out in great numbers. To date, we have not made this happen. We needed to wind down our design work in order to concentrate on marketing functions.

IDS-Research is strictly a Design Studio and Think-Tank and is not structured for commercial development of technologies. Hence the creation of IDS-Development for marketing of ideas, keeping the design side [right-brained] separate from the marketing side [left-brained].

We are now ready to take the technology to market.

Scroller Mechanics is an odd exception to our work, it is not just a device, but also a METHOD representing a new Mechanical Field. The ScrollerWheel principle is a "basic mechanism" for making devices, with many applications spinning off it.

Here is a partial list of Application requests we have received :

• 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
  
  

Each application will be looked at individually by the belting companies as they seek to develop belting specific to the job at hand.