Tennis Racket Research Paper

As technology continues to develop in sport, new composite materials are replacing the old traditional materials. Tennis rackets are no longer made of wood and sheep intestines but instead have been replaced with graphite and the strings are now made of nylon. This essay intends to discuss how old materials have been replaced by new composite materials, the manufacturing process and the benefits to the designer and consumer. Due to new technology, the tennis racket has changed materials.
Throughout the history of tennis, rackets were made of laminated wood. However, in the late 1960’s, Wilson produced a steel tennis racket which featured a wire wound around the frame to make string loops. In the 1980’s, the introduction of graphite tennis
However, in today’s game the rackets weigh about 200 grams. A racket that is heavier is harder to swing and harder to control giving less control to the tennis player. Another vital property of a racket is the bending stiffness, which affects the collision on the ball and the racket. Flexible rackets bend far more on impact compared to a stiff racket that will not bend very much. More energy is absorbed by the flexible racket, with more of the energy going into the bending of the material. Stiff rackets are generally more powerful as less energy is lost in the bending of the racket therefore more energy can be returned to the ball through the strings. In order to maximise the bending stiffness, young’s modulus has to be found out. As you apply tensile stress to the material, the material elongates. Stress is defined as the load per unit area and is measured in Pascal’s. The ratio between the original length and the change in length when a load is applied is called the strain. After the materials and properties are considered, the manufacturing process
When making the plastic, the manufacturers have to making sure the dangerous fumes that come off the plastic are dealt with safely. As well, wood is a bio degradable unlike the materials that are used currently to make the frame meaning old tennis rackets have to be disposed of properly. There are some disadvantages to the quick development in sporting equipment. As the style of tennis being played is different to when tennis first started, spectators have complained about the pace of the game, specifically the service. On a fast court, the service is nearly impossible to see by the naked eye with some travelling at 155 miles per hour. However, science is going behind changing the tennis ball so it slows down on the faster court to make the game more appealing to watch by spectators. A lot of research still goes into developing the racket further to further improve the