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Date: 13 Nov 2006 19:49:02
From:
Subject: new driver technology
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this was in the local newspaper.... looks interesting but expensive.
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists/Lankhof/2006/11/05/2242358-sun.html
John Daly eat your heart out!
The moon rockets he's renowned for hitting on the golf course are
destined to be consigned to history like the stage coach, leather
football helmets and wooden hockey sticks. The new long-drive champion
is soon to be a Russian whose golfing experience consists of two
lessons from LPGA Hall of Famer Carol Mann.
Element 21 Golf, a Toronto sports equipment company, is preparing to
hit a shot round the world. Literally. The company has a patent on a
space-age product, once a state secret in the Soviet Union, that could
change the way golf is played in the same way aluminium bats changed
sandlot baseball.
The company has sent a golf club and ball to the International Space
Station, along with astronaut and flight engineer, Mikhail Tyurin. On
Nov. 23, during a space walk to be televised on ESPN and ABC he will
take one of Element 21's new 5-irons made from a scandium alloy and
drive a ball into space.
It has been heralded by the company as a celebration of the 35th
anniversary of the time Alan Shepard stepped from Apollo 14 to hit golf
balls on the moon. Oh, and they hope you'll buy their new scandium
clubs, too.
"When I first got wind of the idea about a year and a half ago I
thought it was a bit of a -- I wouldn't use the word gimmick -- but I
thought it was a bit odd or bizarre," admits Bill Dey, executive
vice-president and general manager of Element 21. But reaction to the
scheme has been "incredible," says Dey, since it was announced more
than a year ago. "Our brand, is stronger than who we are as a
functioning company," Dey said. That's because, while Element 21 is
known internationally, listed on stock kets, and is having clubs
used by several pros on the PGA Tour, it won't be possible to buy a
scandium alloy club over the counter until February.
Get a hook in the world of golf and it usually is a bad thing, but
having Tyurin hit his space shot is an exception to that rule. It has
tweaked media curiosity in China, Australia, Japan, Korea, Britain,
Spain and Germany, Dey said. It has put Element 21 on the Golf Channel,
CNN and ESPN did a live feed from the space station with Tyurin. "It
has helped us move quickly into the international ket and licencing
business," Dey said. "That's a good thing."
NASA wasn't sure how good it was -- at first. There was concern the
ball floating in space could damage the space station. But safety
officers have cleared the stunt since the ball weighs only three grams
and will burn up returning into earth atmosphere within three days. Or
about as much time as it takes me to finish nine holes.
Element 21 Golf is staking its success on scandium, a mined substance
and the fifth-most abundant element on the earth's crust. In its raw
form, it's not usable. But the Soviets found a way to mix it with 15
other alloys and used it in space vehicles and the manufacture of MIG
fighter jets and missiles.
How good is it? The scandium alloy was licensed to Easton to produce
E21 alloy bats. "In 12 months it completely eliminated their titanium
bat program and today remains their No. 1 biggest launch of any
product," Dey said. "In the last seven years they've done $1.4 billion
US dollars in that bat line. That's an amazing statistic. They've never
changed the product, even today. Because it's impossible to make it any
better."
The secret is in the alloy mix. If it's not done right, it's useless,
Dey said. Element 21 has the patent. They've dubbed it "The soup." It's
50% lighter than titanium and 25% stronger by weight -- which means
instead of hitting it into the fairway bunker I'll now be able to reach
the one in front of the green.
Anyway, the improved strength to weight ratio allowed engineers to move
more weight from the face to the perimeter and back of the club,
resulting in what company officials call the largest sweet spot of any
driver on the ket.
The scandium metal alloy shafts are superior in every respect to
graphite and stainless steel, according to the company.
"It took a tremendous amount of reso surces and years of investment ...
a whole country's resources to develop (the scandium alloy)," Dey said.
"(The Russians) owned it. When the country broke up, that information
got into the public domain. We picked up the rights to how the alloys
are put together into a finished product."
Sounds a bit like a bunch of James Bond types, except with pocket
protectors and physics degrees instead of tini parties and stun
guns.
John Cook used the scandium prototype to finish fifth at the Reno Tahoe
Open and 18 other pros are currently testing them. In November 100
visitors to www.E21golf.com will be used as a focus group.
"The real product launch where they'll be available at a Nevada Bobs or
at pro shops everywhere will be Feb. 15, 2007," Dey said.
"When you build a product you have to be sure the engineering is
perfect," Dey said, of the lagtime between the space shot and when you
can start blaming a new club for hitting it into the trees. "It's not
like going to make scrambled eggs in the morning. You've got to make
sure ... it works."
Drivers will be out in April. The technology won't come cheap, though.
PGA.com lists the drivers costing $700 Cdn.
But, then they are, afterall, out of this world.
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Date: 14 Nov 2006 14:05:42
From: Sandman
Subject: Re: new driver technology
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motofrankster@yahoo.com wrote:
> this was in the local newspaper.... looks interesting but expensive.
>
> http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists/Lankhof/2006/11/05/2242358-sun.html
> Element 21 Golf is staking its success on scandium, a mined substance
> and the fifth-most abundant element on the earth's crust.
The editor needs to pay attention.
Element, % by mass
Oxygen 46.71
Silicon 27.69
Aluminum 8.07
Iron 5.05
Calcium 3.65
Sodium 2.75
Potassium 2.58
Magnesium 2.08
Titanium 0.62
Hydrogen 0.14
Scandium doesn't even have a nonzero entry, but you'd assume from the
table (see below) that it's less than 190 ppm (0.019%), in the
neighborhood of 30th in abundance. Expressing it in mole % wouldn't
help it be 5th.
Source, http://www.science.co.il/PTelements.asp?s=Earth, which
ultimately used a paper from 1924 as its source.
CRC's Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (60th edition, which I have in
front of me) has Scandium as the 50th most abundant earth element
(maybe someone transcribed "50th" incorrectly), compared to 23rd on the
sun.
And scandium is hardly useless by itself, it's used in discharge lamps,
among other things.
B
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Date: 14 Nov 2006 02:58:08
From: Martin Levac
Subject: Re: new driver technology
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<motofrankster@yahoo.com > wrote in message
news:1163476142.151380.166950@h54g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
<snip >
It's the same shit everybody else is selling.
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Date: 14 Nov 2006 06:32:32
From: S McFarlane
Subject: Re: new driver technology
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<motofrankster@yahoo.com > wrote in message
news:1163476142.151380.166950@h54g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
Wonderful. Just what the golfing world needs: a technological breakthrough
in materials science that will allow us to go beyond the performance
problems inherent in titanium. That has really been holding the game back.
It really sucks that I have to use a full swing with my pitching wedge to
approach an average par 4. It ain't right. With this new wonderful
technology, I'll be able to use my lob wedge. That's how the game was
meant to be played. I sure hope the USGA doesn't do it's job this time
around.
Don't worry about the price. It's the fifth most abundant element. It's
expensive because it's new and the ket is slim. Once it becomes
commonplace, it'll be as cheap as titanium.
Scott
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