Testing Sturdier Zome Units

Paul Hildebrandt kindly sent us some prototypes of his new shatter-resistent Zome struts to test. The results of our testing are resoundingly positive. Even after being dropped many times, models made with the samples of the new design remain intact. (See www.zometools.com for more information about Zome.)

Note that the test struts we were given were blue in color, but had triangular ends like the usual yellow struts. Just imagine that the blue struts, in the pictures below (except for the standard truncated icosaherdon), are really yellow....

Peter, age six, followed the printed instructions to construct the truncated icosahedron by himself, using standard struts.
Will, age eleven, created a bug-eyed fish with the round test struts.
Will copied the test object with standard short yellow struts so we could compare the strength of the test struts.

Here are the objects after they have been dropped once, from about one meter above the floor.
The same objects after two drops. The yellow standard object has lost three parts. The test object has lost none.
After the third and final drop, the standard struts have almost all parted from the nodes. The test struts are all still attached.

Paula constructed a rhombic dodecahedron using the test struts, and Peter copied it with standard yellow struts.
After one drop, one standard yellow strut has broken free.
After being dropped twice....

After three drops...
Four drops have almost completely disassembled the standard rhomic dodecahedron.
Even after five drops, the test rhombic dodecahedron is intact, though some joints do need to be tightened a bit.

Ordinary Zome is quite satisfactory for most geometrical models, but the new struts will reduce frustration for younger builders. More importantly, their increased sturdiness will be invaluable for those who use Zome to build molecular models, which, having many large units connected by single struts, tend to be far less sturdy than models of geometrical solids. We hope that the new parts will come on the market this summer, 2003.

Peter, age six, followed the printed instructions to construct the truncated icosahedron by himself, using standard struts.	Will, age eleven, created a bug-eyed fish with the round test struts.	Will copied the test object with standard short yellow struts so we could compare the strength of the test struts.
Here are the objects after they have been dropped once, from about one meter above the floor.	The same objects after two drops. The yellow standard object has lost three parts. The test object has lost none.	After the third and final drop, the standard struts have almost all parted from the nodes. The test struts are all still attached.
Paula constructed a rhombic dodecahedron using the test struts, and Peter copied it with standard yellow struts.	After one drop, one standard yellow strut has broken free.	After being dropped twice....
After three drops...	Four drops have almost completely disassembled the standard rhomic dodecahedron.	Even after five drops, the test rhombic dodecahedron is intact, though some joints do need to be tightened a bit.