Plastic in the sports industry

In recent decades, the selection of materials in sports has become more and more important, as the range increased enourmsly.

While in competitive sports the material can give the crucial advantage in a competition, the material takes care for increasing the comfort and improving personal records in the leisure sector. Plastics assume a more prominent role at that. Reducing the weight is one of the most important factors for the use of plastics. By using light, high quality plastics with similar other properties, the weight of sport goods is extremely reduced. This leads to performance improvements and higher comfort for the athlete.

Plastics show even more advantages in comparison to other materials. Soccer balls are nowadays made of plastic and not leather. The reason for the change in material is that plastic does not absorb water and has very good flight characteristics. Besides, plastics also have good damping properties. In sport shoes and tennis racquets it is used to relieve the joints and to provide more comfort.

Besides the replacement of the material leather in many sports, wood is often being replaced through plastics. Modern tennis rackets are made of high-tech plastics. Weight on the one hand and the stiffness and strength on the other hand leads to the choice of plastics.

Comparing the speed of first serves of the former top player Bjorn Borg with current average tennis players, it becomes obvious that the speed of first serves at international tournaments are now about 28 km / h faster than the first serves of the former champion. The fastest serve that was ever measured had a top speed of 251 km / h and was hit by Ivo Karlovic. These differences can only be explained by the newly applied high-performance plastics.

geba has already gained much experience in the sports industry. High performance materials that increase the power and fun of sportsmen have been developed together with well known customers. Especially Desmovit, a material created by Bayer MaterialScience and geba, is suitable for many sports applications. Important features of Desmovit are the high wear resistance and the high impact strength even at low temperatures. These are all qualities that are indispensable for many winter sports products.

For any further queries please contact our consultants by using the email address » vertriebsport@geba.eu. Our consultants are happy to help you with all emerging questions.