Extensive design
and 3D printing work
with igus has allowed
Phoenix to create
the D3D Hammer
System
speci cally in challenging the
numerous now-outmoded design
limitations found in traditional
instruments. Or, as he rather more
succinctly puts it: “It seemed to me
that after 150 years, it was time to
improve the technology.”
Dain was remarkably wellplaced
to do this, being both an
accomplished amateur pianist
and an engineer with a highly
impressive history that began as
part of a team that had worked with
Sir Frank Whittle to develop the UK
jet engine; forming an engineering
consultancy with Sir Hugh Ford;
simultaneously establishing
Powdrex, a global powdered
steel supplier; overseeing the
development of the IC 225
locomotive and developing solvent
extraction of copper from lean
ores and wastes, for commercial
application. This process now
produces over a third
of the world’s copper supply.
Thus, his ‘retirement’ has simply
been a case of having more time to
work on what matters to him most: the
development of the acoustic piano.
True to its mission, Phoenix has
produced a series of ground-breaking
innovations over the last 15 years,
such as ultra-thin carbon bre and
Kevlar soundboards, a new bridge
concept that transfers sound energy
from the string to the soundboard with
almost doubled ef ciency and use of
modern materials to achieve climateresistant
features. These developments
have been accompanied by pioneer
application of nite element analysis
(FEA) to whole piano structures
using some of the UK’s most powerful
computers. This enables the acoustic
consequences of changes to be
quanti ed and thus optimised without
the huge cost of building instruments
to evaluate each idea.
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