Maform Technology

  Two-stage cycloidal transmissions are a good way of reducing speeds and increasing torque. Some variations are relatively simple in construction. But in most cases they can not be used to increase speed. The problem with turning the output against the housing to increase speeds is that the first and second stage together would have to move along in the interference pattern created by the slightly different number of teeth of the output ring and the housing ring. This results in undesired internal forces that often mostly act to shear the first stage against the second stage, or create a radial force on the stages instead of moving them, or both. This either makes increasing speeds not efficient or not possible. We explored and patented the general way of avoiding these problems. An easy to compute solution was found.

  Inequality I. shows a relation between the projected coordinates of teeth touching points on one pair of connected gears \(\small [x,y]\) and the other pair of connected gears \(\small [x',y']\) and the distance \(\small d\) of the touching points of the local equivalent of rolling circles. Speed increasing arrangements can be efficient if this relation holds true for all such points. Enumerating this on involute tooth profiles shows that they only work with low efficiency and are sensitive to inaccuracies. Profiles based on cycloid curves (e.g. watch tooth profiles) work best. Details are given in the patent.
  The result is a class of two-stage cycloidal speed-increasing transmissions that are efficient, robust, capable of achieving great speed-up rates in a compact form factor. We actively develop and explore use cases. In a watch it can substitute parts of the drive chain, while creating an exclusive look and achieving tourbillon like advantages without increasing the complexity of the device.
  The patent filed as P1900107 with Hungarian priority and extended to member nations of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT)^(b) where it is published as WO2020201783A1 and is in the international phase with a positive international preliminary examination result.

  This research is related to flexible folding, but the goal is the simple, continuous, smooth and fast collapse of planar and non-planar surfaces around axes that are not tangential to a simplified version of the surface. This is useful in products where large surfaces often need to be collapsed into a compact elongated form without straining the materials. We develop and apply this technology jointly with minusplus architecture in an upcoming shading product. By directing and balancing internal forces we were able to create a mobile sun shade that requires no electricity for operation yet it smoothly closes itself in large enough winds, can be opened and closed with a simple move, while it contains less and simpler parts than regular parasols. Curved and complex shapes are also possible with the same properties. This technology has a pending patent with Hungarian priority under application number P2000262 and started the international phase of the PCT procedure.

  The main area of focus considers type of consumer products where there are two or more type of desired states, but the transition between them do not need to have exact constraints^[1][2]. An example utilizing this work is paq chair. Here the desired constrained states are the folded chair state, and the unfolded mattress state. The transition between them, the folding process, is largely unconstrained. This makes the product more simple than the ones using constrained mechanisms for the transition. But the chair state retains a desirable shape unlike the ones without mechanisms. For a lot of people this renders the chair surprisingly more simple than expected, which is a desirable property^[3]. This claim is further supported by the hard to get three-dimensional trademark it got^(c), the marketability^(d), honors^(e) and the awards^(f) the different iterations the chair received.