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[RC] Equipedic and Research on Phase Change Material - Ridecamp GuestPlease Reply to: Pete Harper peteharper1@xxxxxxxxx or ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx ========================================== Hi All, I've been following the Equpedic debate and I just couldn't keep quiet any longer. I was the guy who sat next to you but paid attention during physics class... I followed Candy's links and read the articles to settle the argument for myself. I thought I'd share with the rest of you. The phase change claims are pure horse-biscuits: Granted you will get some early cooling affect as the saddle pad warms up and the beads melt but once all the beads are melted their cooling affect is lost. If you read the claims in the deltatherm article "passive thermal storage" and the mttc article claims "When applied to textile fibers or textile substrates, it slows the rate of heat transfer and can increase heat capacity by 1,000 percent, according to Gateway president Ed Payne." TRDC articl claims "MicroPCMs enhance thermal energy storage.." This doesn't sound very cool to me. This sounds more like these materials are designed to store heat rather than transfer it. Most of the applications are ski boots, wet suits, winter apparel, and etc.. Think of the ice cubes in your whisky, as the ice melts it cools the whisky. Now place your whisky on the back of your horse and ride for fifty miles. When you get back to camp your whisky will be the same temperature as the horses back and the horse won't be any cooler. The only you've accomplished is wasted a perfectly good drink. There may be some validity to the claims regarding Holofibers. I read the US Patent office file on holofibers and they sound pretty "cool". Holofibers are a blend of synthetic and natural fibers specifically design to wick moisture away from the skin. Silver fibers are added to improve heat transfer and as an anit-fungal. Now I can see this aiding in the cooling of the horse. The horse sweats, the pad wicks the moisture away from the skin were it evaporates providing active cooling process. Silver is an excellent thermal conductor so I can see that helping as well and you would want you horse to have BO. As the guys on Myth Busters say: No - on the Phase Change Material Yes - on Holofiber. Bottom line is I suspect there are more cost effective solutions out there in the market. But its you money, spend it as you wish. I'll go back to lurking and reading RC on Digest. Cheers, Pete in TX -------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Candace Kahn" <paintedskyranch@xxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: [RC] Equipedic and Research on Phase Change Material Hi All, For those of you who like the scientific and reports etc - a short = search on the internet produced the info below info on phase change = materials: For those who hate the scientific let me explain what I understand is = the concept behind phase change material. It's based on physics (yikes! = - I took physics in high school and the best thing about physics was the = wonderful guys that sat beside and behind me - what a fun class - never = got the physics part - LOL). Well anyway when you drop an ice cube in = water it turns the water cold. You think it turns cold because the ice = is cold and therefore makes the water cold - right? Nope, wrong. When = you put the ice in the water it draws the heat from the water to melt = the ice. When the heat is removed from the water it becomes cooler. = Voila (took French too) the concept - the phase change material in the = Equipedic Pad draws the heat from the horse's back and therefore the = back is cooler. It works. http://www.deltathermal.com/technology.htm<about:blank> http://www.mcttc.com/successes/Gateway.html<about:blank> http://www.navysbir.brtrc.com/SuccessStories/TriangleResearchDevCorp.pdf<= about:blank> http://www.colorado.edu/engineering/ASEN/asen5519/1999-Files/presentation= s/ben-mottinger.pdf<about:blank> The following link is for Holofiber and the technology behind it: http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p== 1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=4&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d= =PG01&s1=holofiber&OS=holofiber&RS=holofiber<about:blank> With Warm Regards, Candy www.boaboots.com<http://www.boaboots.com/> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
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