Thermoplastic golf club outperforms rivals

APPLICATI#$J,, VT increases use of SCRIMP UK SHIPBUILDER Thornycroft’s minehunter tures

Vosper

latest single role for the Royal

Navy, HMS

Pembroke,

increased

Seemann

fea-

use of the

Composites

Infusion

Resin

Manufacturing

Process (SCRIMP). reinforced

The fibre

plastic

ship was recently from

in minehunters

VT’s

(FRP) launched

Southampton

shipyard. HMS second ordered

is the

of

ships

seven

by the Ministry

Defence Royal

Pembroke

in 1994.

Navy’s seventh

in a

batch of 12 Sandown minehunters

of

It is the Class

all being built

at VT. For this follow-on

batch

HMS Pembroke is the tenth Sandown Class vessel built by v7; three are also in service with the Royal Saudi Naval Forces. ried

out

research

considerable

and development,

nate

delivery,

strength,

reduced

weight,

and cleaner,

reexamined

its produc-

efficient

production.

tion

techniques

and made One

of

using

SCRIMP

entire

superstructure

these involved the increased

some internal

use of SCRIMP

the minehunters.

benefits

of

The major

SCRIMP,

which the company

Other

in

has car-

materials

in

of ships for the Royal Navy

changes.

entirely

process,

are said to be increased lami-

VT

several

nising the fibre cloth cutting

production

more VT

for

is the

and

structures

improvements include

in

Time

(JIT)

Just

material

installing

resin

of non-magnetic and are designed

to resist high shock HMS

Pembroke

tanks within the panel shop

go shock

as a representative

building

berth,

and

trials

using resin guns to improve

of

application.

minehunters.

Sandown

Class

mine-

this

Thornycroft;

accommodate

445144;

up to 40 crew.

ships are built

almost

1999 vessel

batch

Rood,

hunters are 52.5 m long and The

in

second

Phil

loads.

will under-

and

of

mecha-

implementing

of

Vosper

tel: +44-l 703-

fax:

+44-1703-

421539.

Thermoplastic golf club outperforms rivals A CARBON

FIBRE

rein-

forced thermoplastic said

to

be

impressive

reverts to its original quicker

shaft is

behind

steel

the

clubs would.

in

Nottingham

Independent

Jordan Golf’s new driver. based

Tamworth, launched

shaft

LNP

gy transfer

made

camp

Engineering 149,

a carbon

velocity

reinforced

impact

compared

6.

graphite

modified Jordan

nylon shaft

The

is wrapped

with several layers of preimpregnated

carbon

fibre

Testing in the USA is said to show that the Jordan driver hits the ball j&her and straighter than other clubs.

extra

stiffness.

than are. needed to make up

with the fastest swing speeds

a conventional

the shaft in the Jordan driver

587600;

deforms

587730.

there

is no need for a mandrel the manufacturing

in

process

Reinforced Plastics February 1998

an

6.4%

in

of the club

head

with

the

best

shaft drivers. This

velocity

at impact

further.

to and

means

produces of

results in the ball travelling

add the required torque and This

ener-

in the Thermo-

shaft

Thermocomp

PDX-R-92

at

is said to have shown

increase

Plastics’ fibre

UK,

testing University,

that the more efficient

a driver featuring

a gas-injected from

has

UK,

shape

conventional

or graphite-shafted

of

performance

Jordan,

than

shaft.

for

fewer

wrappings carbon

fibre

According

very

to LNP, even

little

and

LNP Engineering Europe

Bv

Plastics

tel: +31-162fax:

+31-162-