We want Wheel to work the way it looks. Tight and seamless.
A lot of thinking went into the design of the tonearm lift.
Starting, stopping and skipping tracks should be swift, reliable and silent. We designed lift mechanisms with solenoids, gears, motors and belts.
No matter how well executed, all of these mechanisms all had their share of clicks, pops and clonks.
Starting, stopping and skipping tracks should be swift, reliable and silent. We designed lift mechanisms with solenoids, gears, motors and belts.
No matter how well executed, all of these mechanisms all had their share of clicks, pops and clonks.
Then Piet suggested to try Flexinol wire, or shape memory alloy actuator wire.
This is a revolutionary wire made of nickel-titanium. It acts like a muscle when heated or electrically driven. Flexinol is not widely used (yet), but you can find it in high end medical equipment and in the Mars Rover, for instance. And now also in Wheel!
Flexinol is extremely durable and reliable, and insensitive to external influences. And it operates in complete silence! It’s also expensive, but because we only need a fairly short thread per Wheel, we just did it.
