REINFORCEDplastics October 2008 0034-3617/08 2008 Elsevier Ltd.

All rights reserved 24

Advanced performance
elevates sporting spirit
Sports products have always been a proving ground
for composites innovation. In premium athletic gear,
Vicki P. McConnell finds premium materials applications.
N
o spectator could miss the
message of peace suffusing every
aspect of the Beijing Olympics
this August, a spectacular event
in every sense. Underlying the keen focus
on the scoreboards for every race was a
keen focus on engineered materials in the
equipment used by these elite athletes. While
participants raced for their countries in the
spirit of peace, within each competitors
heart is always the desire to lead and win
every contest in the ultimate spirit of pace.
Beyond an athletes natural talent and
strenuous training, equipment plays a crucial
role in most competitive sports. Advanced
composites in this equipment can comple-
ment athletic performance through strength,
stiffness, complex geometry, reduced weight,
damping, aerodynamics and durability.
Athletes also attest to the unique feel of engi-
neered composites, whether in racquet, club,
bicycle, bat, blade, board or boat.
Dinghy sails to silver
20 years ago this year, the womens two-
person 470 class dinghy races debuted in the
A CSC Saxo Bank team cyclist takes advantage of 3T's advanced composite aerobar, fork and seat post in the 2008 Tour de France.
Feature
REINFORCEDplastics October 2008 25
Olympic games. These light, quick sailboats
4.7 m long, weight of 119.7 kg, mast height
of 6.7 m, volume of three sails at 25.7 m
2
utilise a nearly vertical centreboard and
rudder and respond immediately to a sailors
body movement. As such, the two-person
team must work with heightened synergy,
especially since the crew sailor has to be
downright acrobatic in terms of leveraging
her body weight to keep the boat level in all
conditions.
The 470 Class races at this years sum-
mer Olympics were held off the coast of
Qingdao. Working with the Dutch Olympic
Committee and Dutch Sports Federation,
DSM Composite Resins of Schaffhausen,
Switzerland, developed a special polyester
resin and glass fibre/polyester laminate utilis-
ing Neogel Eco gel-coat. The laminate with
low-VOC gel-oat was hand layed up in a
prototype 470 dinghy and tested for a year by
the 470 team representing the Netherlands,
Marcelien De Koning and Lobke Berkhout.
The edge these materials gave the boat was
extra stiffness (120%), reduced weight (2.5%
and within Olympic weight minimum stand-
ard), and enhanced strength (200%).
Most important, perhaps, the composite
afforded a perfectly moulded hull shape
that is very stable in the water. The extra
stiffness makes the hull less prone to energy
loss from hull bending in the action of the
short waves characteristic of Qingdao coastal
waters. Based on the prototype, the Dutch
sailors lauded the boat for its speed and
handleability.
A DSM spokesperson tells Reinforced
Plastics that the laminate for the dinghy is
based on DSMs experience in supplying
materials for composite wind turbine blades,
and is about three to six layers thick (2-
4 mm). The liquid polyester was formulated
for optimum adhesion, and wet out of the
thinner E-glass fibres occurs in the mould.
The lay-up process for the boat raced in
China is called 'cold curing.' Italian boat
manufacturer Nautivela has adopted the new
materials and build-up as a new standard for
its 470 class sailboats.
This years 470 class Olympic sailing
contest saw the Dutch and Australian
womens teams finishing neck and neck
throughout the ten trials, both earning single
digit finishes among 19 teams. On 18 August,
however, Australia edged out the Netherlands
in the zig zag around marker buoys, taking
first place gold with 43 total points. Still,
the Netherlands sailors garnered second
place and the silver medal with 53 points,
coming in just behind Australias fleet pace of
20.23 minutes over the regattas final course.
Hybrid golf shaft
From the coastal waters of China to the North
Sea shore in Scotland, composites travel
the globe in premium sports applications.
It is international parlance that the go to
player on any sports team is the one with
a record for making exceptional scores. At
last years British Open golf championship
at Carnoustie Links, the first Irishman to
win the tournament in 60 years used a go
to hybrid utility club with a Helical Tour
shaft designed by Hybrex Golf Inc of Tempe,
Arizona, USA. In the four-shot playoff,
Padraig Harrington made his game on three
of the holes with the utility club for both
tee shots and long approaches. In doing so,
he won his first major championship and
became the Number 6 ranked golfer in the
world.
Howard Lindsay, Hybrexs CEO, makes
the point that Harringtons choice of the
hybrid club with the Helix Tour shaft
demonstrated exactly what this unique
carbon fibre/epoxy and titanium materials
mix is designed for: critical accuracy and
distance control. Hybrid in this instance
has a dual meaning: it represents a golf club
category incorporating the weight/torque
properties of both heavy iron shafts and
lighter weight woods (which may in fact be
composite). A pro golfer using a hybrid club
with a Hybrex shaft can bridge the accuracy
and distance control properties found in a
130 g iron and a 70 g driver. From a materials
standpoint, the truly innovative hybridisation
of advanced carbon fibre composite with
titanium allows Hybrex to engineer the best
properties of each material into the low
torque, linear weight progressed shaft.
Energy management is the ultimate
advantage realised in Hybrex golf shafts. The
carbon fibre/epoxy and metal elements are
complementary in dissipating or damping
Besides light weight and unique shape, Oxeons large tow spread fibers woven into fabric and UD prepreg give Asia
Seikos Fight Weapon prototype bicycle frame a singular tricked out appearance.
Feature
REINFORCEDplastics October 2008 26
lateral energy, including angular oscillations
on the downswing and off-axis rotational
distortion upon and during impact with the
ball. The Helix Tour shafts are ultra low-
torque, meaning they have high torsional
stiffness from the titanium but are easier to
swing as a result of the damping and reduced
weight provided by the carbon fibre/epoxy.
Key to achieving this high-tech merger of
materials and performance are two patented
technologies BiFusion and ExoGrid.
Lindsay explains that ExoGrid technology
creates an exoskeleton of titanium (or other
base metal), up to a third of which is laser
machined away. The resulting helical pattern
greatly enhances the torsional stiffness of
the club action as well as the shafts bonus
aesthetics.
Within this external metal sleeve, a table
rolled high-modulus carbon fibre/epoxy
sleeve is moulded under 100 psi pressure at
121- 148C. This process organically fuses
the two materials. Lindsay emphasises that
"this is not a mechanical weld of two dis-
similar materials," but a unique adhesion
process. He estimates that it takes about 40
minutes to make a single shaft, and states
that a special film adhesive "is the pacing
item in our cure profile." This adhesive, along
with the visibility of both materials within
the ExoGrid geometry, eliminates the 'blind
bond' encountered in conventional adhe-
sion of two solid tubes. Also, concentricity
anomalies in wall thickness that occur at the
tip of a conventionally manufactured com-
posite shaft are eliminated, which enhances
consistency.
This year, Hybrex had made some signifi-
cant changes in its Helix Tour shafts.
"We have added flexibility by reducing
the thickness and diameter of the titanium
exoskeleton overall, and in the concentration
of titanium in the shaft mid-section. Also, we
have increased the amount of carbon fibre
in the shaft tip and are now constructing the
butt section entirely in carbon fibre/epoxy
rather than titanium," Lindsay reports. "Our
first generation 90 g shafts were 75% tita-
nium and are now at 35% in the shaft tip."
Hybrex has also shifted away from sup-
plying hybrid category shafts to full club
category service, starting with drivers.
"Premium golf shafts live or die on driv-
ers," Lindsay claims. "Drivers are the Holy
Grail of the premium market segment, and
we have 35 pros playing our Helix Tour shafts
now, including the new driver shafts."
The new driver shafts come in different
flexes: S, X, XX. These options for getting the
most desired feel and best chance at directing
a clubs sweet spot to a golfers advantage
arent inexpensive.
"Ours is not a commodity mindset,"
Lindsay concludes. "When you want the best
technology partner in a golf shaft, it will
likely not be the cheapest."
Hybrex Golf, Inc is a subsidiary of
VyaTek Sports, which Lindsay founded in
1999 after 10 years of building composite
rocket motors at Hercules and a stint with
a defence contractor. To date, VyaTek has
applied its ExoGrid and BiFusion composite
technologies in golf clubs, tennis racquets,
baseball bats, bicycle components, sports
wheelchairs, and lacrosse stick handles.
One of its sports OEM customers will be
introducing a high-end curling stick by years
end using the VyaTek exclusive composites
technologies.
Bicycle world
The CSC team cyclists competing in Beijing
won at all three medal levels in various
events on bicycles featuring advanced
composite components. The components are
manufactured by 3T Design Ltd of Madone,
Italy, and also made news on bikes ridden
by winners in 2008 Tour de France race
classifications. On these championship
bicycles, 3Ts products include the VENTUS
aerobar, ERGOSUM handlebars, ARX stems
and FUNDA aero fork.
Richard McAinsh, 3Ts Technical Director,
explains that for race-calibre bicycle compo-
nents, the goal in using carbon fibre compos-
ites is to build in strength and stiffness prop-
erties that can handle complex deflections
under load, including material elasticity and
yield stress levels, while also delivering the
least possible mass. Its no exaggeration that
world team cyclists can lift their bikes with
one finger, theyre that light weight. Earlier
this year, McAinsh led 3T in tooling up to
accomplish these goals with a high-powered
computer aided engineering platform that
includes software capability for new product
design (Dassaults CATIA V5), finite ele-
ment analysis (FEA from NEiNestran) and
manufacturing optimisation (VISTAGYS
FiberSIM).
Best of both worlds: Hybrex fuses a titanium exoskeleton to a carbon fibre/epoxy sleeve to design premium performance into its Helical Tour golf shafts.
Feature
REINFORCEDplastics October 2008 27
"This platform gives us the ability
to examine FEA structural and dynamic
performance through a fast, iterative
development process, and the gigabyte
calculation capacity to optimise FiberSIMs
control of the strains in every material ply
of a components lay-up. Overall, these tools
increase the likelihood that a prototype,
designed to engineering standards at the
aerospace and professional race car level, will
deliver desired performance the first time
out," McAinsh says.
3T actually introduced its first sports
products in aluminium, including its bull-
horn-shaped signature handlebars in 1975.
McAinsh has brought the company into the
advanced composites materials and engineer-
ing realm based on his 15 years of experience
in building Ferraris Formula 1 race cars. He
believes cycle components are "no less safety
critical than the suspension of an F1 car." In
addition to the software-rich engineering
applied to 3Ts bicycle parts, they endure
rigorous exposure in test rigs and by zeal-
ous pro riders on roads and tracks, "where
crashes and spills are an everyday occurrence
in testing these components to real-world
destruction," McAinsh claims.
The step change McAinsh seeks in
composite design must be working: 3T offers
the lightest, fastest carbon fibre/epoxy racing
aerobar (850 g) on the planet, the VENTUS
LTD, with an integrated stem and tiny brake
levers to maximise aerodynamics. The OEMs
ROTUNDO variable-thickness composite
dropbar capitalises upon 3Ts signature round
drop bend, a tight curvature that allows a
rider to adjust lever orientation over a wide
range of angles without significant hand
movement. For both racing and recreational
bikes, FUNDA composite forks come in 650
and 700 c lengths weighing 325 g or 375 g.
3Ts composite seat post comes in 27.2 cm
and 31.6 cm diameter, weighs 130 g and
features a two-bolt clamp for adjustability.
At the ultralight weight of 118 g, the ARX
composite stem makes the frame connection
between fork and handlebar. 3T has designed
the ARX with titanium clamps.
McAinsh points out that 3T chose not
to wrap an aluminium stem with carbon
fibre but rather design the ARX entirely from
carbon fibre/epoxy, with alloy inserts for
threads and shaping.
"Luckily, my F1 experience with exactly
this challenge in attaching the engine
mounting onto a composite tub stood us in
good stead!"
Hot out of this years Eurobike conference
concluded the first week in September,
component OEM Asia Seiko of Taichung
County, Taiwan, debuted its Fight Weapon
bicycle frame made with woven, large tow
carbon fibre in TeXtreme fabric and TeXero
dry unidirectional (UD) tape from Oxeon AB,
Sweden. Andreas Josefsson, Vice President of
Oxeon, reports that his companys woven
materials have reduced the weight of the bike
frame from 880 g when made with small or
intermediate tow in fabric and tape, to 770 g.
The Oxeon materials are complementary in
the frame; the UD tape provides flexibility
in manipulation of fibre orientation to resist
impact and the fabric allows for custom
design of torsional stiffness.
"TeXtreme exhibits a small degree of
crimp but can achieve properties close to that
of a conventional unidirectional cross-ply
fabric with less labour time," Josefsson says.
He adds that customers in the sports
industry "tend to act quickly and are not
hesitant to try innovation and, if it works,
to adapt their products." They also like the
'tricked out' look of the larger carbon fibre
squares in Oxeons weave patterns.
Over the past two years, Oxeon has segued
from prototype scale manufacturing to an
industrialised process, and the sports market
is key for the company. Fabrics are available
in areal weights of 80-200 g/m
2
, with tapes
in the 40-100 g/m
2
range. Josefsson suggests
overall product evaluation is underway to net
more efficiency, by possibly increasing higher
and intermediate modulus fibres in the fabric
weave, lowering material areal weight to
increase fibre spreading, and reducing the
amount of stabilisation material.
Surfin' safari in nanoland
If theres a buzzword in the composites indus-
try today, it has 'nano' in it, whether nano-
materials, nanocomposites, nanoparticles or
nanopreg. High-purity carbon nanotubes or
CNTs (usually multiwalled) are at the heart
of this reinforcement revolution in the one-
billionths of a metre realm, and bring both
pros and cons to sports equipment.
The pros of adding CNTs to surfboard
glass/epoxy laminate, according to Desi
Banatao of Entropy Sports, a surfboard
maker in Santa Monica, California, USA, are
a dynamic boost in mechanical properties.
For athletes subjecting their equipment to
the slam of breaking waves, ocean rocks and
sand, this translates to extreme toughness
and extended board life. Products can be
made lighter as well, since lower loadings of
CNT are required than other fillers.
Over a years time in 2006 and 2007,
Entropy Sports worked with Nanoledge,
of Boucherville, Quebec, a company that
A need for speed by water sports enthusiasts is answered in the low density, nanoclay enhanced SMC hull, deck and
liner on Yamahas popular WaveRunners.
Feature
REINFORCEDplastics October 2008 28
added CNTs (Baytubes supplied by Bayer
MaterialScience) into the surfboard OEMs
epoxy system. The resulting prototype short
board (6.8 ft long) was constructed through
hand lay-up and vacuum bag cure. The
boards core is expanded polystyrene, and
three layers of fibreglass protect the boards
surface exterior (two plies on top, one on the
bottom).
Sports retailers know that the purchase of
expensive sports equipment involves emotion,
so a products appearance is designed to elicit
that response. Surfboards tend to present
themselves in bright colours and cutting-edge
graphics. However, the CNT reinforcement in
this prototype board limited surface colour
to pitch black, which can obviously draw
in considerable heat on a sunny day at the
beach. Banatao says Entropy makes several
other CNT reinforced boards, along with
its own line of Bio Boards, which utilise an
environmentally friendly pine-based epoxy
as well as hybrid reinforcement with glass
and natural fibres such as hemp, flax, and
bamboo. "We are the prototyping kings of
surfboards!", he jests, but takes customer
satisfaction and eco-responsibility seriously.
For its part, Nanoledge offers its NANO
IN RES MASTER SERIES resins, which can
be filled with CNTs, nanoclays and nanosilica
using proprietary dispersion technology.
The resins have reportedly demonstrated
improved impact resistance of 50-100% and
2.5 times greater overall strength, toughness,
flexibility, chemical resistance, compression
and fatigue resistance, and conductivity
properties. The CNT-filled resins have also
been tested in skis, bats and arrow shafts.
An even tougher environment for
composite sports boards can be found in the
skateboard arena. Hanging ten over concrete
and metal street courses, "those athletes really
torture test their boards," observes Russell
Belden, Business Development Manager
for Zyvex Performance Materials (ZPM)
in Columbus, Ohio, USA. ZPM actually
engineers the dispersion of CNTs into
existing resin matrices, using its trademarked
Kentera surface treatment to keep the CNT
side walls from clumping together, and non-
covalently enhances the CNT/resin bond. This
molecular additive service makes up about
20% of ZPMs business, and the matrices
may be thermoset, thermoplastic, metal or
ceramic. In 2009, the company will begin
selling its own commercial nanomaterials:
Epovex CNT reinforced epoxy and Aerovex
CNT/epoxy prepreg.
Belden tells Reinforced Plastics that Insect
Skateboards will commercially launch boards
on 1 October that are made with Aerovex
prepreg laminated over birch core. The
high shear strength of the wood with the
ultra-high tensile/compressive strength of
the CNTs in light weight boards will also
provide a 50% price reduction compared to
skateboards with conventional carbon fibre/
epoxy laminate in the deck. Insect reports
developing new tooling that will allow for
rapid production of nanotech blanks, and
use of CNC machining to decrease shaping
time. Accuracy can be achieved in the deck
laminate to 3/1000ths of an inch; Belden says
cure factors for the CNT laminate deck are
128C at under 30 psi.
ZPM is no stranger to sports product
applications, having worked extensively with
Easton Sports in creating CNT composites
for bats, bicycle components, hockey stick
blades, and with Aldila in golf shafts. Belden
notes that CNT composites give baseball
bats better weight balance along the bats
length, and twice the durability of traditional
composite materials. Easton says it gets about
150 GPa tensile strength from the high quality
dispersion of the 10-20 microns long CNTs.
The 'sweet spot' on a club or blade can also be
extended using molecular CNT engineering.
Belden says testing of the Aerovex prepreg
has shown a 35% improvement in mechanical
properties, and the Epovex epoxies can be
wetted out with glass, although the final
product look will be graphitic black. High-
end sports equipment comprises about 10%
of ZPMs annual business; other application
areas include aerospace, marine, and defence.
Among the key nanotube suppliers with
whom ZPM works is Arkema, manufacturer
of Graphistrength multi-wall CNTs.
Back to the beach with SMC
Though sheet moulding compound (SMC)
may not immediately come to mind as a high-
performance material, it gains that status in a
carbon fibre and nanoparticulate-reinforced
hybrid polyester/polyurethane matrix. This
composite is compression moulded into
hull, liner and deck components for Yamaha
Watercraft Group of Kennesaw, Georgia,
USA, in several of its 2008 WaveRunner
personal watercraft.
Using resin supplied by Reichhold Inc,
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, USA,
Entropy Sports is looking at the incorporation of carbon nanotubes into surfboards to boost mechanical properties.
Feature
REINFORCEDplastics October 2008 29
and SMC formulation from Interplastic
Corp, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA, Yamaha calls
its special SMC recipe NanoXcel.
"Yamaha is the only OEM that has
successfully developed an SMC material
that is strong enough to meet the extreme
structural demands of personal watercraft,"
states Harold Wallace, Product Engineer for
Yamaha Motor Manufacturing Corp.
He relates that Yamaha originally selected
standard SMC in the late 1980s, even though
it was heavier than other reinforced plastics,
at a density of 1.9 g/cm
3
, because compression
moulding offered an environmentally sound
processing method. Wallace says Yamaha was
already moulding small plastic parts but
nothing as large or performance critical as
the WaveRunner components.
Customers kept requesting faster, more
powerful vehicles, and Yamaha made requests
of many different compounders for lower
density SMC recipes. When the call went
unanswered, "our own staff embarked on a
mission to reduce the weight of the SMC,
and we were able to do so, to a density of
1.7 g/cm
3
. This became our competitive edge
through the 1990s." By 2001, the company
wanted further SMC weight reductions.
"We were looking for a way to replace the
heavy calcium carbonate filler with a lighter
material."
When Yamaha met with staff from
Interplastic, they found a partner that
Wallace says "showed promise, capability,
and a desire to develop a lower density
SMC formulation that would be capable of
meeting all the personal watercraft market
requirements while surpassing all of Yamahas
environmental concerns, processing issues,
and quality requirements."
"This 1.45 g/cm
3
density nanoclay-filled
SMC became NanoXcel, without a major
cost run up or change in our manufacturing
process," Wallace recalls.
The hybrid resin provides the flexibility
and toughness of polyurethane and the high
strength/stiffness and temperature resistance
of polyester, and is compatible with the
nanoclay.
Besides being able to mould NanoXcel
with 10-15% less tonnage and lower
temperature than traditional SMC, Yamaha
has been able to mould its 2008 FX SHO and
HO WaveRunner models in the 2007 HO
WaveRunner mould without modification.
Customers have provided feedback on
this years models in terms of improved
acceleration, top speed, durability, fuel
savings, and responsiveness.
Wallace admits the NanoXcel material
price dictates that "we reserve it for the high-
performance and top-of-the-line models. We
are already seeing racers gravitate toward our
production units, and the NanoXcel material
is an important reason why they are choosing
Yamaha."
Terry Van Hyfte, Technical Director for
Molding Products, a subsidiary of Interplastic
Corp and compounder of NanoXcel SMC,
agrees with Wallace.
"At the high-end of personal watercraft,
speed is key. When we began working with
them to formulate NanoXcel, Yamaha was
coming up with a new engine, but also want-
ed to reduce the overall vehicle weight and
improve the aerodynamics with a smoother
surface material. The key components still
had to meet Class A surface finish without
the use of glass spheres in the SMC, as well
as deliver the ruggedness needed for impact
resistance. This has been our first experi-
ence with a nanomaterial and also the most
complicated formulation weve developed
to date."
He says that Yamaha routinely
demonstrates its definition of ruggedness by
taking a sledge hammer to the WaveRunner
sides during durability testing.
When it comes to nanocomposites, Van
Hyfte believes "theres no book you can
read on the topic to come up with a specific
compounding recipe, so we used the science
of trial and error in order to determine
optimum thickening and maturation time
when adding the nanoclay into the SMC
formulation." The nano filler allows more
room for pigment, which is important since
Yamaha wanted a particular degree of black
in the WaveRunner exterior.
Fluid market
Do these premium applications indicate that
the spirit of pace is winning more growth for
composites in the sports equipment market?
An analyst with Composite Market Reports
suggests that, while overall demand for
carbon fibre in this market is on the rise, this
is a mature market that is directly affected
by consumer spending. In the struggling US
economy, and in Europe as well, the feel good
factor of such high-end sports equipment
purchases will likely see a decline. Better
news on the horizon: the analyst thinks
"maybe look for an uptick in this market in
late 2010."
In June, the National Sporting Goods
Association, Mount Prospect, Illinois, USA,
reported retail sales for sporting goods last
year (including footwear and clothing)
reached 38.1 billion ($53.5 billion) and are
expected to be flat (at $53.4 billion) this year.
In 2007, the largest segment for consumer
equipment purchases was in golf, followed
closely by fishing.
For anyone who doubts the far-
reaching nature of advanced composites in
sports equipment or the ardency of sports
enthusiasm, heres a slightly less publicised fact
from Beijings summer games: 600 alternate
fuelled vehicles (AFVs) were crucial in China
for transporting athletes and spectators alike
in the spirit of pace to and from the busy,
multiple event sites. Some of these AFVs were
running on natural gas, some on electricity,
some hybrids, and some featured hydrogen
fuel cell propulsion. Without advanced
composites in the pressurised fuel storage
tanks, in the bipolar fuel cell plates, and even
filtering out smog to the engine, the AFVs
could not have provided such Olympian
service.
DSM Composite Resins;
www.dsmcompositeresins.com
Hybrex Golf; www.hybrexgolf.com
3T Design Ltd; www.thenew3t.com
Oxeon AB; www.oxeon.se
Entropy Sports; www.entropysports.com
Nanoledge; www.nanoledge.com
Zyvex Performance Materials;
www.zyvexpro.com
Interplastic Corp; www.interplastic.com