FYI: The synthetic cork is coming !!!

Discussion in 'Shuttlecock' started by chris-ccc, Feb 6, 2007.

  1. chris-ccc

    chris-ccc Regular Member

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    Greetings,

    For those who are interested, here is an article on The Art of Shuttlecock Making.

    Most of us thought that we are only moving from natural feathers to synthetic feathers, but surprise, surprise ...... we are also moving from natural cork to synthetic cork. :):):)

    This article is from DAYI Sportsgoods (WUHU) Limited Company, Anhui Province, China, written by Zhang Hui Zi.

    ====== start article ======

    At DAYI, we have fine-tuned the art of shuttlecock making and now that we have achieved this new standard, the key to production of the best shuttle lies in feathers and cork heads.

    We have discovered that some of the best cork comes from the rind of robur trees commonly found in Portugal.

    The cork that is commonly used takes about 13 years mature. However, with the growing popularity of badminton, most manufacturers are cutting the maturation time to 6 years. As a result, the quality of the cork does not match up to the quality of year's past.

    Champagne companies normally purchase grade 1 cork to use for stoppers. The remaining grade 2 and 3 corks are bought by shuttlecock factories.

    To add to the mix, badminton rackets, strings and style of play have improved tremendously. Players are faster, stronger and more agile.

    With the coming of higher quality of play, grade 1 cork is necessary to keep up the"new" badminton, however grade 1 cork would be too expensive to use on a shuttlecock, therefore new technology had to be used to create a comparable cork that can out last the vigorous play of badminton.

    At DAYI, after 4 years of extensive research, we have discovered that a multi layer cork can withstand the pounding of today's style of badminton. Multi layered cork comes in 3 layers and 2 layers.

    We feel that 3 layers cork it the most durable and comparable to the performance of a grade 1 cork. The 3rd layer is a synthetic cork, able to withstand even the most competitive style of badminton. Therefore, we produce all of our shuttles using layered cork with different grades to meet the demands of today's players.

    At DAYI, our commitment to quality is an ongoing process. We are confident that you'll find our products to meet or exceed your expectations.

    It's no wonder more and more people around the world are discovering our dedication to fine shuttlecock making and to the sport of badminton.


    ====== end article ======

    Cheers... chris@ccc
     
  2. westwood_13

    westwood_13 Regular Member

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    Interesting.

    Now the ultimate question is... which is more environmentally sustainable?
     
  3. ants

    ants Regular Member

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    I think i read this article somewhere. But its good that it has been brought up to this thread.
     
  4. cooler

    cooler Regular Member

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    i think substituting the natural cork is not that hard. The hard part is still making synthetic feathers that can perform equally or better than real feathers. Often, it is the feathers that deteriorate first, not the cork. Actually, prince had once made a shuttle with exchangable feathers on a synthetic cork. On certain low end shuttles, synthetic foam cork is used too. I would be ok with synthetic cork on high end feather shuttle.
     
    #4 cooler, Feb 6, 2007
    Last edited: Feb 6, 2007
  5. Pete LSD

    Pete LSD Regular Member

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    This is old news. Sosan has been doing this for a while. The synthetic cork easily deform upon impact by the frame of the racquet.
     
  6. DinkAlot

    DinkAlot dcbadminton
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    The cork is not the problem, the shortage of good feathers is.
     
  7. Dreamzz

    Dreamzz Regular Member

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    i would have thought they'd be able to make synthetic corks that would be better at absorbing racquet impact.
     
  8. chris-ccc

    chris-ccc Regular Member

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    In Australia, synthetic corks for wine bottles are now common

    Hi Pete LSD,

    In Australia, synthetic corks for wine bottles are now very common.

    And these wine bottle corks cannot be damaged/deformed even by a smashing blow with a hammer. :):):)

    However, these wine bottle corks are too heavy to be used as corks for shuttlecocks.

    I am quite sure, with further extensive research, they will come out with one which will be suitable for shuttlecock making.

    But the article stated that they found, at the present moment, the most durable cork is the 3 layers cork, and only the 3rd layer is synthetic.

    I am no expert in shuttlecock making. But after reading the article, I am now, when I have the time, dissecting worn shuttlecocks to see if I can find those 3 layers... just curious.

    So far, I have not come across one as described by the article. All the shuttlecocks that I have dissected so far are 100% natural cork... but I have not dissected a Sosan shuttlecock because we do not have Sosan in Australia.

    Perhaps, other BC members can report on this, in their own findings.

    Cheers... chris@ccc
     
    #8 chris-ccc, Feb 7, 2007
    Last edited: Feb 7, 2007
  9. cooler

    cooler Regular Member

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    i think that could be an old marketing spin by sosan. All real cork are not layered by nature. Actually, I see the cheaper shuttlecock uses layerd cork more so than high end shuttlecock.

    When wine bottler took in the idea of screw cap, shuttlecock maker no longer find natural cork as scare as before. As course with time, badminton popularity uprising can drive up the demand for cork afterward.

    ---------------------------------------------
    Australian, New Zealand wine makers bet replacing cork won't screw up sales - On Wine - Brief Article
    Nation's Restaurant News, March 25, 2002 by Mary Ewing-Mulligan, Ed McCarthy
    It was a professional moment we shall never forget. We were seated comfortably at an elegant restaurant on Lake Geneva about 10 years ago. From an extensive wine list, we chose a bottle of a crisp, Swiss Dezelay to start our meal. The very formal sommelier presented the bottle, we checked out the label and nodded, and then he turned away to open the bottle. After tasting the wine, we were startled to see in his hand, not a corkscrew and a cork, but a screw cap that he just had removed from the bottle.

    The sommelier said many Swiss wines for the domestic market and many half-bottles for export had screw caps. Did customers react negatively? When one considers the fairly high prices of Swiss wines, he said, customers hardly could confuse them with jug wines just because of screw caps.

    The U.S. wine trade is still leery of screw-cap closures on bottles of fine wine; marketers fear that screw caps will lower the image of their wines in consumers' eyes. But the screw-cap brigade is slowly and inevitably advancing on the U.S. market. Although the Swiss were pioneers of screwcap packaging for fine wine, the new champions of the cause are in Australia and New Zealand.

    Anyone who sells wine on-premises is familiar with the reason why wine producers would look for an alternative bottle closure. Cork is susceptible to bacteria and molds winch can, under certain circumstances, create a bad aroma and an off-flavor in wine. The incidence of cork taint ranges from 2 percent to 10 percent or even more.

    While some corky wines obviously are tainted by off-flavors and aromas, to the point that even novice wine drinkers can know that something is wrong with the wine, other corky wines are only subtly affected. They taste dull and lackluster rather than spoiled, and their normal aromas and flavors are muted. Diners and even service staff might not recognize such bottles as corky. In fact, one New Zealand wine producer affirms that 5 percent of the wines opened in his tasting room are tainted by bad cork, but his customers return only one-half of 1 percent of his wines.

    As an alternative to natural cork, wineries have used stoppers made of glued, agglomerated cork as well as various types of polymer "corks." To determine how screw caps and other alternative closures measure up to natural cork in maintaining freshness, the Australian Wine Research Institute is conducting a study of 14 closures. But some producers are convinced already that screw caps are the best solution; they believe that other closures either give a plastic taste to the wine or allow oxygen into the bottle, which dulls wine's flavors and causes white wines to brown. Their own experiments have determined that wines bottled with screw caps do develop overtime, shattering a popular belief that cork is necessary for age-worthy wines.

    Last year 27 wineries formed the New Zealand Screwcap Wine Seal Initiative, and most of them have bottled some or all of their 2001-vintage wines with screw caps. In Australia two dozen producers from the prestigious Clare Valley region have bottled their Rieslings similarly. Some of those wines are for sale in the United States.

    Besides lack of cork taint and enhanced freshness, wines sealed with screw caps have the advantage of being user-friendly. While servers and other professionals are comfortable using corkscrews to extract natural corks, some polymer corks are challenging to remove -- as we discovered when we needed pliers to remove such a cork from our corkscrew. Will all those advantages finally convince consumers to accept screw caps on bottles of fine wine? Many New Zealand and Australian winemakers are betting on it.
     
  10. chris-ccc

    chris-ccc Regular Member

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    To be more environmentally sustainable

    Hi cooler,

    You must be a wine drinker. :):):)

    But seriously, synthetic cork and synthetic feathers will be eventually used for Badminton... whether it be next year or the next decade.

    However, as westwood_13 puts it... "is it more environmentally sustainable?", that is another question for us.

    We still need to care for Mother Earth, not just caring for our Badminton.

    Cheers... chris@ccc
     

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