"Master! Enemy Vibes attacking! What are your orders?"
"Mercury, stand-by to redistribute our forces. Check
integrity of the inner seals. What is our spin pattern?"
"Outer ring idling at 3700 rotations, surges up to 4400,
Master. Our propulsion unit's internal temperatures are rising
rapidly. It will be ready for full power in 58 seconds."
"Activate Mercury. Report torque fluctuations."
"Sir! RPM's are coming in too fast! They're shaking the
ship's frame!"
"Maintain balance! Damage Control, how are the main engine
bearings taking the strain?"
"Only minor friction, Master. Lubrication temperature
is still low, but vibration threat is minimal."
"Well done, Mercury! Set for full power"
"Rotations 5300 and holding. Tracking reports 10 degrees
longitudinal wobble of the ship. Mercury is shielding the propulsion
shaft from gyroscopic pressures, Sir."
"Good. Launch mode! Countdown begin... NOW!"
"Rotations 5900 ... 6000... 61... 62. Flight speed! Lift-off...
Oh, no! We're hit! We're hit! The Vibes hit us with a tip strike!
Major prop imbalance! This ship's gonna self-destruct...!"
"Maximum gravity shift, Mercury! Continue the launch!"
"Y-yes, Master. Reaching orbit trajectory... we're...
we're doing it! We're climbing out of danger! Vibration attack
is under control! Balance Master, you have saved our ship...!"
The cheering fades out as the
camera pans outward from the spinning disk mounted beneath the
propeller bolts of your ultralight airplane. The engine comes
into view running smoothly followed by a swift scan
along the fuselage and wings to focus finally on your own blissfully
happy face admiring the view as you climb higher into the blue
sky.
The final scene shows you back on the ground, reaching out
with quivering fingers to touch a broken tip of your propeller,
whispering, "Must've hit the grass... on take-off, probably.
Guess I let the nose drop too far. I didn't even know! It should
have shaken the whole plane to pieces and I didn't even know.
Only the Balance Master could have saved me..."
Cut! So ends another exciting episode of "Balance Masters®:
The Movie!" Well, ah, actually there isn't any movie about
Chris Gamble's innovations yet. But there could be, some
day. The way this guy is going, anything is possible.
Sun-Tech Innovations is Chris Gamble's company that produces
the Balance Master. If you haven't guessed what the Master is
by now, then re-read the script above. Okay, since you're going
to peek ahead anyway then you might as well be told.
The Balance Master is a dynamically active counter-balancing
mechanism which, when fitted to a spinning part, eliminates up
to 80% of destructive ultra-sonic vibrational resonance. Friction
between surfaces is thereby reduced, helping machinery to run
cooler, smoother and last longer. It consists of a ring of liquid
Mercury inside layers of flexible tube sealed within a steel
shell. The outside is coated with black epoxy baked on at high
temperatures. Applications range from aircraft propellers and
turbines to motorcycle wheels, truck tires, clutch assemblies,
flywheels and just about anything else that spins. Miniature
versions have even been successfully tested on computer hard-drives.
Two principles of physics are involved in the Balance Master's
operation. One is centrifugal force, which makes the mercury
'heavier' and more effective the faster it spins. The other is
Newton's Third Law of Motion, which states that for every action
there must be an equal and opposite reaction. The mercury automatically
shifts its center of mass in the ring to compensate on the opposite
side of any imbalance.
Mercury occurs naturally in a liquid state, because it will
not easily combine with anything else. It is the only frictionless
mineral liquid known to man so 'slick' with such a high
degree of surface tension that it will not even stick to glass.
Nor will it boil or freeze in conditions likely to be encountered
by operating machinery. Since the mercury cannot stick to the
inside of the Balance Master's tubing, there is no friction to
wear the unit out. Instead, it is free to instantly shift its
center of gravity within its own mass to perfectly balance whatever
force is acting on it.
Chris "discovered" the potential of mercury as a
centrifugal balancing agent after his wife's washing machine
vibrated itself off the back porch and fell with a crash, spilling
clothes everywhere. First, after cleaning up the mess, he tried
to figure a way to keep lead in a liquid state long enough to
re-balance the flywheel of the cantankerous machine. Eventually,
he learned that Mercury not only stays liquid naturally but also
happens to be a third heavier than the same volume of lead.
The idea of dynamic (fluid) balancing had been used as far
back as 1908 by German scientists and improved by Americans in
the early 1940's using steel ball-bearings in tubes filled with
oil. So Chris, being an amateur-inventor familiar with such things,
took the idea one step further by creating the Balance Master
using liquid Mercury. It is now another of his 15 widely-diversified
patented inventions.
Chris started Sun-Tech Innovations in 1984 as a way of helping
others develop their own marketable ideas. Often he gets calls
asking, "Can you do this...?" His standard answer is,
"No! But I'll help you find ways to do it yourself!"
He continues to practice his own advice by creating new products
such as the Balance Master.
Ultralight aircraft use of Balance Masters® began in 1979 when
Chris gave some sample parts to a couple of instructors to try
on their propellers. The pilots weren't sure they could notice
much difference at first. Then after a series of practice landings
and take-offs, a student found he had somehow chipped off a quarter
of an inch from the tip of one propeller blade without
noticing any excess vibration! (That's where the idea for the
fictitious script at the start of this article came from. It
actually happened.)
The propeller Balance Master is a disk measuring less than
7 inches in diameter that fits behind the propeller. To install,
simply remove the prop, slip the disk over the bolts with the
flat side toward the prop, then replace the propeller and torque
the bolts. After tracking the tips, run the engine at full RPM
for one minute, then torque the bolts one more time and re-check
the tip tracking. You are now ready to fly with an active propeller
balancing system.
After refining the propeller balancers, Chris expanded further
by designing Balance Masters® to fit on flywheels and starters
of Rotax and Cayunna (now 2si) engines. Vibration of some two-stroke
engines has been reduced by as much as 50% when both balancers
are installed. The devices weigh about 4 oz. and measure less
than 5 inches in diameter.
Installation takes about 30 minutes using ordinary hand tools.
Cost is $70 for the propeller Balance Master. Rotax engine
Balance Masters® are $64 for the 277, 532 or 582 and $90 to fit
the 377, 447 or 503 engines. They can be ordered directly from
Sun-Tech's Northridge, California factory by calling 1-800-786-8324.
Chris can be reached by e-mail at sun-tech@sbcglobal.net,
or you can check out his website at www:BalanceMasters.com.
