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Prior to starting his own business, Ribbon Technology Corporation, Lloyd Hackman was a structural engineer for North American Aviation/Rockwell Corporation. In l968 as Group Leader of the Structural Development Group he was responsible for developing the structural applications for glass, graphite and boron fiber in aircraft structures. It was at this time that Lloyd first became interested in using these advanced materials in golf shafts. Lloyd built his first graphite golf shaft in l968 using a filament winding process. Lloyd built golf shafts for himself and friends over the next five to six years before quality golf shafts began to appear in the marketplace. The fabrication of the golf shafts is what developed Lloyd's interest in custom club making and then to the concept of frequency tuning. In seeking a patent on his frequency-tuning process, he found that the concept had been patented already in England. He built his own frequency meter in 1973. Since that time Lloyd has played with frequency tuned golf clubs. He also built frequency tuned clubs for many of his friends using a trial and error method to establish the best frequencies. Knowing that the trial and error method was difficult and could cost a great deal of money Lloyd began to think about the process of determining what shaft stiffness or club frequency a player would need to match his swing timing. The swing frequency concept was then born when Lloyd decided the use of accelerometers attached to the club could determine the acceleration pattern throughout the swing. With this pattern he could provide, through computer analysis,
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a swing release timing which could be matched by fabrication of a golf club to a natural frequency that would match that timing. If you analyze the swing, as Lloyd has, the critical point in determining the natural frequency of the club is the time when the shaft starts to release or unload during the swing. That time subtracted from the time at which you impact the ball is representative of one quarter cycle of the natural frequency of the golf club. Corrections are made through mathematical relations to the frequency dependent upon the golf club head speed and resulting centrifugal force that occurs between release and ball impact. The computer easily makes such corrections. Thus, the unit provides the ultimate in golf club fitting. It identifies the exact time for the release of the golf club and ball impact and matches the response time between golf club release and ball impact to a natural frequency of a club which will come back to straight and square during that period. Such a club will provide the player with maximum performance through club head speed and club head square. The instrument that has resulted in the "SFA" system was initially conceived in the 80's and finally developed in l993 when all the required components came together in computer analysis and sensor miniaturization. The "SFA" system was first introduced at the Professional Club Makers Association meeting in Louisville in September of l994. The manufacturing phase began in late October, l994. Perfected Golf Group, Ltd was formed in 1994 to develop and market the "SFA" system which eventually became FitChip.
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