POWERSHAFT TECHNOLOGY >>>>FOR PRINT READY VERSION OF THIS PAGE CLICK HERE
Engineering the Next Generation: Performance & Safety
Relative Performance
Derived From Test Data
The Performance Paradigm is a natural phenomenon where power and control are inversely related. As power goes up, control goes down. This conflict is inherent in the stiffness of alloy and composite tube shafts. Without controlled flex, these light, stiff, shafts are bio-mechanically inefficient. They force the player to absorb shock and compensate for unnatural rigidity. Look at other sports, tennis, golf and skiing, that have all broken the performance paradigm and how they did it, all through highly engineered controlled flex through complex product design.
The Hammer PowerShaft™ is the first and only lacrosse shaft to offer controlled flex. Flex is the complex result of dynamically related components working together as a system. The system requires the tuned performance of a laminated graphite reinforced core, encased in a highly flexible Kevlar® composite shell. The system produces scalable controlled flex that, for the first time, unites power and control, enabling performance to increase with athletic ability. It not only breaks the performance paradigm, it does it with unmatched scalable performance and safety.
Accomplishing controlled flex however, is not so simple; it took Hammer over two years of intense development to achieve, and two more years to engineer in manufacturability. It requires a complex five-day manufacturing process with over 65 tightly controlled steps.
Modern exotic alloy and composite tube lacrosse shafts are still employing 30 year old technology (where flex is the result of weakness), new materials but old technology, where performance and control are mutually exclusive and at opposite ends of their technology performance continuum. As power goes up, control goes down. A rigid tube shaft is inherently unable to provide scalable controlled flex and is thus trapped in the performance paradigm. However, when you break the paradigm, power and control not only increase together but are in fact, dependent on each other. This is the paradigm shift.
As the Hammer development team worked its way through the complex design process, being told by expert after expert that what they were trying to do was not possible, the material combinations began to self select. Like Edison trying over 1,000 materials before success with the light bulb, the PowerShaft design and material combinations slowly and organically emerged. The key is that it’s not one material or component, it’s a system of components working together dynamically to produce controlled flex.
The flex has almost magical properties. It allows the shaft to isolate and conserve energy, wich means less bio-mechanic energy loss (into the athlete’s body). The configuration of the internal stiffening element (highly engineered laminated carbon spars), enables the shaft to flex naturally with the athletes swing putting less pressure on the athletes body joints, just like golf, tennis, and skiing. Natural fluid body motion is not only critical to athletic performance, but also reduces the risk of long term shock and vibration health issues. According to related medical science, light, stiff shafts produce unwanted stress on muscle joints through balance-pressure and translational-shock. Over the past 30 years, sports medicine has discovered that long term exposure to light, rigid, sports equipment is the cause of shock and vibration transmission to the athlete’s wrists, elbows and shoulders, which is the culprit in the long-term muscle joint fatigue condition known as tennis elbow. These concerns are addressed in Hammer’s PowerShaft technology.
Energy Transfer Analysis
These graphs show the relative performance of lacrosse shafts of different materials and configuration using a standardized shock and vibration test with Fast Fourier Transform analysis of stick-on-stick impact.
When struck with the same energy, the Hammer PowerShaft shaft damps the shock at twice the rate of the alloy and composite tube shafts. Note the sustained vibration, sustained amplitude and characteristic harmonics inherent in the tube designs.
Not only does the Hammer PowerShaft has all the safety and performance benefits of controlled flex, the impact vibration testing showed the Hammer PowerShaft had the shortest time in dissipating the vibrational frequency content of the impact. Hollow alloy tubes retain vibrational energy 51% longer than the PowerShaft, and hollow composite tubes retain vibrational energy 7.1% longer than the PowerShaft. The PowerShaft shafts transmit less shock than other shaft technologies to the hands of the player in a stick on stick impact.
In standardized Bend-Break tests, the Hammer shafts had twice the flexibility of the hollow alloy and composite tube shafts. This highly engineered flexibility is the key to breaking the performance paradigm and improving player safety. In the bend-break test, both the alloy and composite tube shafts resisted bending and had more stored energy to release at failure. When the alloy shafts were bent to failure, they presented sharp points at each side of the fold edges and some showed tearing with jagged edges. In the case of the hollow composite tube shafts, when bent to failure they presented jagged edges capable of player laceration. The PowerShaft shafts flexed 51% further than the composite tube shafts before breaking. This is a significant safety advantage. Also, due to the polyamide/carbon fiber construction melded in aerospace epoxy, the Hammer shafts produce no sharp edges when bent to the point of failure.
