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Early History of Composites

Early History of Composites

  •  Around 1200 BC, first “composite bow” invented by Mongolians (and/or by Parthians or Tatars), a combination of wood, bamboo, bone,  cattle tendons, horn and silk bonded with natural pine resin (fig.1)
  • All parts of the modern recurve bow use composites: riser, limbs, stabilisers, visors but also arrows (fig.2)
  • 1933: First glass fibre use in bows by Fred Bear Co. (USA), patent filed in 1950 for “synthetic laminated bow“
    glass fibre material was not only described as “reinforcing material“, but also “energy storage material“
  • CFRP stabilisers since 1987, CFRP arrows since 1982

Recent Development

Recent Developments

 

RISERS (CENTRAL PART)

  • Carbon fibre composites used in ultralight NIK’A ET9 riser (only 793 gr, metal > 1250gr ) and UUKHA XPRO2 Carbon ILF (controlled vibration damping) (fig3)

LIMBS

  • Mostly sandwich structure with carbon composite skins and foam, bamboo or other cores
  • Major material innovations occurring (fig.4):
    • WiaWis uses High Modulus CFRP on graphene foam core (NS-XP foam)
    • WNS FC-100 carbon limbs with CRS (compression/release stabilised) foam

STABILISERS

  • From 1987, the advent of widely available, high-stiffness carbon rods for stabilisers changed the game …
    every individual Olympic Gold Medalist since the Seoul Games in 1988, has used a stabiliser system (fig.5)

ARROWS

  • full CFRP arrows since 1982 (fig.6)
  • since 1984 (@Easton, USA): High-strength carbon fiber composite bonded to a 7075 alloy core

 

PARA-ARCHERY (fig. 7)

  • In para-archery, there are three categories, two for wheelchair and one for standing athletes
    Athletes can choose between recurve and compound bows, in which composites are used
    (as indicated above)
  • No fast moving, so ultralight composite wheelchairs are not needed

 

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