
Limbs must be a be able to withstand high compressive and tensile forces. The materials now used for risers are aluminum, carbon fiber, 7075 aluminum alloy. The first compound bows were extremely heavy but since have become unbelievably light. The challenge was finding a material for the riser that meet these qualifications and yet, was as light as possible. Because of the extreme amounts of tension exerted on the limbs, the riser must be extremely ridge and durable. This is what the limbs and rest, bow sight and stabilizer are attached to. The main section of a compound bow is the riser. This “system” has undergone countless changes and improvements in the years since then but however many changes there are, it’s still just one thing that makes a compound bow work mechanical advantage. Allen spent several years working on his design and eventually settled on a system that used cams and eccentric wheels. Since the limbs were cut short, you couldn’t draw it back very far. He received a patent for this design in 1969.Īllen’s first design simply cut the ends off a recurve bow and attached pulleys to each end. The straight limbed and recurve bow were the only bow types used until 1966 when a gentleman named Holless Wilbur Allen revolutionized archery when he invented the compound bow. The recurve was a big improvement because the limb design stores and transfers energy much better than the straight limb bow. The earliest bow design was the straight-limbed bow.The only major improvement on the traditional bow design was the recurve bow, which has limbs which curve forward. Allen’s First Compound Bow Patent Drawingsįor thousands of years, man made use of bows for hunting and war. Thankfully, even though there are many different designs, they all share the same basic principles that make a compound bow work. This article will not be long enough to look at every variation but will rather try to answer our question in the simplest way possible. Today, there are a lot of different compound bows available and many variations in the designs. Most of these changes have been improvements to the design and also the materials used. The Design of A Compound Bowįirst it needs to be said that since the invention of the compound bow, it has undergone many changes. This energy is so strong that arrow fired from a compound bow fly at speeds upwards of 350 ft per second. That force, then transfers an extreme amount of energy to your arrow when the bowstring is released. The simple answer is that a compound bow works by allowing you to draw a bowstring attached to a pulley system of cables and cams which exert force on the limbs. It’s the most widely used type of bow in archery today but due to it’s complex design, many people have asked, “how does a compound bow work?” In this article, I will briefly cover the history of the compound bow and also simplify the interesting way a compound bow works. Have you ever wondered what all the cables and wheels on a compound bow are for? You’re not alone.
