All Zircon blocks have smooth, soft-attachment points. This saves fastener weight, is kinder to the lace line and lets the block better align to the load path.
Harken Zircon Blocks
Size-for-size in our expanding range, Zircon blocks are the most efficient small boat blocks Harken has ever made. At the core of Zircon performance are industrial ceramic ball bearings mounted inside caged races. The cages keep these bearings apart so they don’t bunch up, touch, and stop each other. The result is a very free-running block with less energy lost to friction. Give an unrigged Zircon block a strong spin, and it spins for an incredibly long time. Zircon bearings are more than 700% stronger in compression than stainless bearings of the same size. So, they stay really smooth and won’t deform--within recommended load limits. More importantly, they don’t absorb as much energy before starting to roll. This becomes evident when you need to ease a sheet or multi-part control line in light air. You can react to very slight fluctuations in line load. When used expertly, that means better sail shape and more speed.
Zircon is named for Zirconium, the metallic element #40 on the periodic table of elements.
Each ceramic bearing ball used in Zircon blocks are very hard, smooth and expensive. That’s why we designed the block to perform using only 7.
The ceramic bearing balls run in a curved inner-race that is also ceramic. That race needs to be made of like metal. Without it, the ceramic balls would destroy the block from the inside.
The white inner bearing races are molded inside the black glass fiber reinforced sheave material. It’s a new process developed in Pewaukee.