Throughout history, we’ve seen famous inventors invent things for which there was no purpose or need. It’s happened again with the Swift wheel, according to its inventor David Patrick.
“We did not set out to re-invent the wheel. This thing was an accident. We sat on it for years after we built it. We’d show it to visitors and ask if they thought it could roll. Of course they said no. Then we’d make it roll and they’d be amazed,” recalls Patrick.
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Swift stands for Sine Wave Innovative Flotation and Traction. The sine wave or sinusoid is a mathematical curve that describes a smooth, repetitive oscillation back and forth or up and down from the start position to the maximums. This is called its amplitude. Sine waves occur in pure and applied mathematics, physics, engineering, signal processing and many other fields. It has been described as a pattern where the high portion of one wave fits into the low portion of the adjacent wave. There is no limit to the number of waves being stacked together.
Patrick says his Swift wheel features a unique sinusoidal tread design that generates a helical, DNA-shaped travel path between the two out-of-phase wheels on the irrigation tower. The trailing wheel fills in the ruts created by the leading wheel. The bi-directional tread pattern allows the wheel to work equally well in both directions. It reduces wheel rutting from 14 inches with a pneumatic tire to one inch with Swift.
Rather than a conventional round circle, the Shark concept employs many three-dimensional sine waves made of metal, rubber or synthetic material. When the physical waves are stacked together, the shape is a hybrid of a sphere and cube, taking on the properties of both shapes while in motion.
“One day it occurred that we could fit two or three or more vinyl waves together to make them wider, and then we’d actually have a wheel. Our first commercial application was skateboard wheels. Shark skateboard wheels are faster and they have more grip. The shape of the waves let you skate through gravel and rough surfaces.”
