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In January of 1973, legendary director George Lucas began writing Star Wars. Now, nearly 50 years and dozens of shows, movies, and books later, the name has become synonymous with creativity and adventure. From R2-D2 to the Death Star, Star Wars shows off some of the most outlandish and interesting technological possibilities that many people […]

The  Frictionless Riverhawk Free-Flex® Pivot offers many advantages: infinite life, low center shift, and no friction. Yes, you read that right: no friction. Now, you may be saying to yourself “Well, that’s impossible. There is always some friction in a moving part”. Is the Free-Flex® Pivot truly as frictionless as we say? What is friction?

Precision Movement and Repeatability: Original Innovation Like most of the world’s engineering marvels, the Free-Flex Pivots design started as a question. What can we use to produce a gimbal ring with precise, repeatable motion in multiple axes at small degrees of rotation? In early 1960, Henry Troeger answered that question. Through the use of an

There are many topics and nuances associated with the Free-Flex® Pivot product line. A common topic is the phenomena of “center shift.” Centershift is a kinematic property of pivots that expresses a movement of axes off-center from each other. The body of the pivot is essentially a cylinder split in two halves which rotate relative

Riverhawk Company has an extensive history in manufacturing flexures for use in a variety of applications. Our product has been an important part of the Semiconductor manufacturing equipment market for decades. However, one of the best features of our product is its ability to be implemented in a vast catalog of products across all industries. This

Selecting a Free-Flex® Pivot for an application is not as simple as selecting other types of bearings. This tutorial attempts to explain how to select a Free-Flex® Pivot for a simple radial loading situation. For more complex loading, aerospace, or life safety applications, contact Riverhawk Engineering so we can ensure the proper margins of safety are

Measurement equipment is commonly used across all industries. Some such equipment, such as dial indicators and profilometers are readily available. As products and processes evolve, customized in-line metrology becomes paramount to maintaining quality and consistency.  Many different types of instruments function using a simple lever over a central (pivot) point. Ball bearings are a typical

Riverhawk produces the Free-Flex® Flexural Pivot, an encapsulated flexure bearing designed for high cycle oscillatory motion. We produce the original design that was patented back in the early 1960’s and has been used in thousands of applications since then.  Among our most notable applications are high precision space mechanisms of all sorts.  From scanning mirrors

Free-Flex® Pivots have been used for many years within the semiconductor industry to facilitate production of wafers and integrated circuits created by lithography. As technology advances and new manufacturing methods become available, equipment must also be adapted for increased speed and accuracy. There are many steps throughout wafer production from creation, processing, masking and inspection.