High Tech Pendulums
Introduction
Hi-Tech Educational Product Range
On the 8th December 2004, Hi-Tech Limited and P.A Hilton Limited made a joint announcement that the Educational Product Range of Hi-Tech has been sold to P. A. Hilton Limited. In making the announcement Mr John White, the Acting Managing Director of Hi-Tech said that the sale was part of the Company’s policy to concentrate on its scientific instruments business. On behalf of P.A. Hilton Limited, Managing Director, Mark Pontin welcomed the addition of the Hi-Tech educational product range with the following statement: “The name of P.A. Hilton Limited has been synonymous with the design and manufacture of reliable and high quality educational products for over 40 years. The purchase of the Hi-Tech Educational Product range, which enjoys a similar worldwide reputation is a very significant development for the Company and further strengthens our position in many export markets”. The Hi-Tech Trade Mark is recognised worldwide and we believe that under the new ownership the existing educational product range can be developed and expanded further while retaining the reputation acquired over many years. As part of the business sale Paul Ingram (Development Engineer) has been employed by P.A.Hilton Limited. He is seen as a key member of the team who will ensure the successful integration and development of the product range and his joining is a very welcome addition to the range of skills P.A. Hilton Limited can deploy.??Work on intregrating and promoting the new product range has now commenced and further details will be announced shortly. Further information can be obtained by contacting This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by visiting www.hi-techedu.com
Educational Plan:
The growth of civilisation requires the development of civil engineering. This demands the education and training of large numbers of technicians and a smaller core of engineers. To assist the process Hl-TECH have, during their 40 years of design experience, produced a logically progressive range of over 50 HI-PLAN2 structures experiments which cover the whole subject range of structural mechanics up to postgraduate level.
Mechanisms:
These self-contained mechanisms on standard A3 boards are equally suitable for the mechanics laboratory, drawing office or classroom. The principle component parts are made of transparent amber coloured Perspex, pivoted with hollow rivets. Being tinted, and in sharp contrast to the white melamine surfaced board, the movement of the parts can be seen across a classroom. This is much more convincing than blackboard artwork, slides, or transparencies on an overhead projector.
The hollow rivet connections accept a Staedtler collet pencil (HTM70c), for transferring the loci of all moving parts to a sheet of paper. If A3 size paper is used spring clips are available for holding it in place. Here is a way of re-cycling computer printout paper, so every student has an individual collection of mechanism movements.
The loci board for generating gear wheel curves has a shaped Perspex plate with a toothed track inside the inner circle, round the external radius and along the horizontal top. The toothed wheel supplied rolls without slip along these tracks, permitting the relevant locus to be drawn by a pencil held against the wheel. A disc and cord is included to draw the involute curve.
Range of Experiments
Description:
A simple pendulum consisting of a cord with a ring at the top end and a sliding heavy bobweight. The pendulum oscillates on a knife edge bracket attached to the wall at a convenient height. A stopwatch and rule are supplied to time the swing of the pendulum and to measure its length.
This equipment is part of a range designed to both demonstrate and experimentally confirm basic engineering principles. Great care has been given to each item so as to provide wide experimental scope without unduly complicating or compromising the design. Each piece of apparatus is self-contained and compact. Setting up time is minimal, and all measurements are made with the simplest possible instrumentation, so that the student involvement is purely with the engineering principles being taught.