Frequently Asked Questions

Step Two - Purchasing Graphite

Graphite is purchased by the pound in spools. The spools are normally 12, 24 or 36 inches wide. A normal sized spool will weight 30 to 40 pounds. The graphite is purchased in a pre-preg state. What this means is the graphite is impregnated with resin before it is purchased. Graphite can either be purchased with the scrim already applied or the manufacturer can purchase the scrim separate and apply it himself.

When graphite is purchased it is not bought off the shelf with predetermined specs. What does happen is the manufacturer will spec the type of graphite to be used, how much is to be used in a square meter (by weight), how much resin is included by content, type of resin to be used and type of scrim to be used (if purchased scrimmed). The product is than built to the manufacturers specs. The desired action of the blank determines the material specifications. If one wants a soft action they will order one set of specs while one wanting a very crisp action will order another set of specs. Equally, if not more important than the material, is the design of the pattern and the design of the tooling.

In purchasing the material to buy, we order 1,000 pounds and up of the material to be made for us. The above mentioned specs will include the tensile modulus of the material, tensile strength, spec the resin content, type of resin and type of scrim. The manufacturers consider this combination proprietary. It is this combination of materials as well as the design that gives the blanks their unique actions. This is why different manufacturers will put their own name on the materials used as opposed to disclosing the specification used.

Also, there are no universal standards for names so one can call the material used whatever they choose.

After the graphite has been purchased, the next step is to cut the material according to the pattern.

Tensile Strength and Tensile Modulus ---->