Technology Deep Dive: Mechanics Edition
Welcome to Part II of our Technology Deep Dive. This is the mechanics edition, so we sat down with our other Co-Founder, Eric, to talk about his work designing and prototyping the Stata Clock.
In case you missed it, be sure to check out Part I (the software edition).
Tell me about the mechanics of the Stata Clock. Does it work like a regular clock?
Like a regular clock, the Stata Clock has a drive mechanism that moves gears , which in turn, attach to and rotate an arm. However, unlike a regular clock the Stata Clock has an individual drive mechanism for each arm allowing the arms to move independently. This makes our mechanism six-times more complex than an ordinary clock mechanism.
What was the inspiration behind your design?
Simple minimalism. An ordinary, analog clock is such an elegant and effective mechanism. I wanted to preserve that methodology while still increasing the capabilities of the Stata Clock mechanism. While we were designing, we tried to continue to remind ourselves of our inspiration so as not to over-complicate and over-engineer a solution. I think that the final design truly accomplished that goal.
In an increasingly digital world, why did you want to make the Stata Clock a mechanical device?
A digital version of the clock just felt too easy. We wanted the clock to be a statement piece — a masterpiece of both mechanical and technical design. Having another screen or LED display in your house has become ordinary, even expected. We wanted the Stata Clock to stand out and feel a bit nostalgic at the same time.
What was the most challenging aspect of the mechanics to design?
The most challenging part was figuring out how to get the gear hubs on the end of the axle shafts. Each arm has its own hollow shaft that ride one inside another, forming a series of six concentric tubes. In order to save space these shafts need to be fairly thin. We went through quite a few iterations on hub attachment methods before settling on the final version.
What is the most challenging part of manufacturing the Stata Clock mechanics?
The axle assembly is by far the most complex mechanical piece on the Stata Clock. The spacing between the hands needs to be held to a very tight tolerance to ensure that the drive motor gears are always meshed with the axle. If the spacing is too great then the drive gear could shift off the axle gear and disengage, causing the arm to not rotate, or worse yet, engage on two axle gears and bind up the system. If the spacing is too little then there will be too much friction between to arms resulting in poor positional accuracy.
What feature are you especially proud of?
We are truly committed to quality engineering and manufacturing our team really got into a DFM (Design For Manufacturability) mindset, diving deep into the intricacies of manufacturing and assembly. Because of the DFM work we accomplished, we are now able to manufacture 100% of the components that make up the Stata Clock using tools we have in our Brooklyn shop. This allows each one of our clocks to be truly hand crafted — something I am incredibly proud of!
Do you have any features you want to add in the future?
Looking towards the future there are a few features that come to mind — first off is the ability to have interchangeable icons. This is definitely a big project and will take some serious thought on both the mechanics and software fronts. Having a larger selection of custom hands would also be great. The clock is designed so that all of the parts you see can be easily changed to a different style (the face and hands). We would love to set up a library of available hand and face styles so users can customize their clocks.
