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jjtt99

Therma Blade

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Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but for anyone that is interested I just saw a commercial for "How its Made" on the Science Channel that advertised they would be doing a segment on Thermablades next week. Their segments are usually pretty good - there have been a few posted about skates, gloves, sticks, etc. on here before.

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I just watched the thermablade episode of How Its Made. Pretty interesting, even if the technology is somewhat bunk.

What kind of NBH Vapor boot did they mount it on at the end of the segment? Looks like the SMU thing that they stick T-Blades to in Germany.

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For anyone who's interested below is a link to the Therma Blade How It's Made. Seems like the narrator may be a schill for the company too. Pretty interesting stuff, the one thing I noticed is that it doesn't look easy to change steel because of the way the steel is molded to the heat unit. Would that mean that whenever someone killed the steel they had to get all new holders?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwiF8pi26Nc

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For anyone who's interested below is a link to the Therma Blade How It's Made. Seems like the narrator may be a schill for the company too. Pretty interesting stuff, the one thing I noticed is that it doesn't look easy to change steel because of the way the steel is molded to the heat unit. Would that mean that whenever someone killed the steel they had to get all new holders?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwiF8pi26Nc

Based on that video I think you change the whoel blade, but not the holders, so just the electrical and the blade that are both attached.

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Since I manage sports/engineering effort, I am very interested in how new innovations proceed. So I spent this morning looking at the where the status of Thermablade has gone - and it's GONE!! - ie bankrupted this summer. That hits me with some sadness, but not that I didn't suspect that would be the case. After seeing "how it's made" and the marketing effort I knew they spent gobs of $$.

This is true - TB Inc owed some $14 million to various people and businesses. About $8 million is owed to "debentures" which is money loaned outright to TB Inc in exchange for interest payments. The media companies, sports stores, many others are owed cash in the collapse. The detailed list is is on the link. WG Authentic for instance must be 99's company.

http://www.rsmrichter.com/downloads/pdf/in...ionProposal.pdf

Back to the TB story. It was an out of the box start-up. A nobody with an idea, applied technology and engineering, goodly sum of cash, a school of yes men who worship cash, and a feverish marketing campaign. And there is no doubt that if the Sendin twins were currently ripping it up on Thermas we'd all be happily lining up at $400 for the pair. We pay $200+ for sticks that can snap like twigs. So if it's not about the money then what was it about?

I have not tried them, but let's assume they do work.

Thermablade... |... Carbon Stick

Demo : Hard ................... Easy

Installation : Hard ................... Pick it up

Looks : Goofy ................... Great

Hole Pattern : Not standard ...................Not applicable

Weight : Heavier ................... Lighter

Performance : Unproven................... Proof

PIA Factor : Yes ...................Reduced (Sticks stay good longer)

The OP carbon stick developed slowly and from companies that had other products to offset their development losses. And it took a decades for the OPS to be adopted. For example I used a Titan fiberglass OPS way back in the mid 80's! That came and went. Carbon was the real ingredient that made the OPS work.

So IMO TB was too many strikes against, not enough for and pushing too hard. How come for $14 Mill nobody in that circle of yes men spoke up?

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I don't think those were the main issues. I think the big one was it was what, $500 for maybe feeling less sore at the end of a game?

The cost was too much for too little a return. If the cost was anywhere close to what they were charging, they never stood a chance.

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I don't think those were the main issues. I think the big one was it was what, $500 for maybe feeling less sore at the end of a game?

The cost was too much for too little a return. If the cost was anywhere close to what they were charging, they never stood a chance.

For me, it was that the testing was flawed to begin with. The results couldn;t be pinned down to whether it's the blade being a different dimension, different hardness, or whether it was heated.

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Cptjeff hit it on the head- people weren't willing to shell out $400-500 on something that may or may not work,and would provide minimal performance increase if any. When comparing it to an OPS, OPS were an easy sell as the benefits were tangible after you took a couple of shots- increased velocity, decreased weight, consistent flex and feel from one stick to another in the same brand/line. TB was too high a price for too many question marks.

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it'd have gone easier if they had a product that actually worked.

but it didnt. and never will.

These guys think they can make this work:

comprising:a first electrical generation component connected to the first tendon guard;a second electrical generation component connected to the second tendon guard, wherein movement of a leg of the wearer forwards and backwards moves the first electrical generation component with respect to the second electrical generation component, thereby generating an electrical current;the ice skate connected to the skate boot; anda plurality of resistors connected to the ice skate and configured to receive the electrical current from the electrical generator to thereby generate heat and heat the ice skate.

Read more: http://www.faqs.org/patents/app/20090243238#ixzz0eQ12DLoD

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Eventually battery technology will be sufficient to generate enough heat for enough time to make it useful. It may take a while before that technology is mature enough to be priced well enough for retail success.

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Eventually battery technology will be sufficient to generate enough heat for enough time to make it useful. It may take a while before that technology is mature enough to be priced well enough for retail success.

The company that makes those MLX skates has a patent on generating electrical current to heat the blades without any battery. I doubt it is in the current skates on Malkin, etc. but they've got the patent.

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Eventually battery technology will be sufficient to generate enough heat for enough time to make it useful. It may take a while before that technology is mature enough to be priced well enough for retail success.

The company that makes those MLX skates has a patent on generating electrical current to heat the blades without any battery. I doubt it is in the current skates on Malkin, etc. but they've got the patent.

I saw that link on the last page and read it. Interesting idea, but a long way from being ready for use.

Venture capital debate removed.

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Eventually battery technology will be sufficient to generate enough heat for enough time to make it useful. It may take a while before that technology is mature enough to be priced well enough for retail success.

it's not the batteries.

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