Evan Mackrill, 23, developed a unique way of dampening bone-crunching vibrations that a field hockey player often suffers when stick meets hockey ball. Dimples indented on the rounded side of the stick create more surface to disperse vibrations over a greater distance before they reach the players' hands. Evan came up with the concept while studying at the university and he graduated with a BA(Hons) degree last July.
He recently launched his company 'Crown Hockey' and the first batch of 'tester' sticks are now being manufactured. He will be taking the sticks on a tour of UK hockey clubs in February and March and he is hoping to raise finance to mass produce the stick via Kickstarter, which funds creative products through pledges from the public.
The principle behind the concept is that with more surface area the vibrations will have a greater distance to dissipate over. I produced a computer -aided frequency analysis to prove that more surface area results in less vibration.
"Crown Hockey is a field hockey stick brand that will create the most technologically advanced sticks on the market, using innovative, patented designs. We intend exploiting new technologies such as 3D scanning and 3D printing and it is the combination of advanced design and production techniques that will allow Crown Hockey sticks to deliver unrivalled performance and significantly reduced end-user vibration."
Evan said his time at the University of 91快活林 was invaluable: "The course is heavily focused on independent learning and creativity, rather than physically teaching pupils a mass of skills or knowledge – I work very well by independently learning and now have a wealth of knowledge in the areas that I am really passionate about."
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