In the belly of U.S Navy aircraft carriers and minesweepers, a coating of nanomaterial protects the giant gears and pipes that drive these colossal ships. This technology saves the Navy million dollars a year in maintenance. Now, another type of nanomaterial coating may help you play a better game of golf.
AccuFLEX, a Gastonia-based company, uses a mix of new nanosized materials to make a stronger, lighter, more durable golf shaft called Evolution. It’s made with the help of nanotechnology – the manipulation of atoms and molecules at the nanoscale level, a billionth of a meter.
But why use nanotechnology in golf?
“A lot of times when you make a golf shaft, it’s not always perfectly straight. Often there are gaps in the shaft,” says Todd Cassidy, AccuFLEX vice president. To solve this problem, the company coats the golf shaft with Nano Composite – a material designedby AccuFLEX. The nano-sized particles in the Nano Composite fill in any tiny spaces in the golf shaft, giving the shaft a tighter molecular structure.
“When the shaft is in its raw state, the Nano Composite is applied and material becomes more uniform, more consistent, and more dense at the smallest level. Anytime you can make a material more dense, it becomes immediately stronger,” says Cassidy.
AccuFLEX president, Jody Baucom, picked Gastonia as company headquarters because of his close ties to the area. Baucom went to high school in the area and his father worked in the local textile mills. On his own, through self-taught knowledge and research, Baucom learned the golf industry and the engineering behind the sport.
The company began looking at nanotechnology as a possible way to improve its product. With researchers in Gastonia and parts of Asia, AccuFLEX spent a year developing and testing the Nano Composite formula used in the new golf shaft. “With some hard work, determined research and luck, we got the right combination real quickly,” says Cassidy. The name for the Evolution golf shaft, Cassidy says, sprang from the idea that nanotechnology is “the evolution to a new era in golf.”
And now that early investment in nanotechnology is paying off. Evolution is the company’s best selling product with demand growing rapidly.
With a nanotechnology-enhanced product on the market, AccuFLEX now has an edge on many competitors who are still working to finding the right formula. “We were the first to the consumer in our industry with a nanoproduct. That’s helped us because customers now think of our company first,” says Cassidy.
But like most new discoveries, nanotechnology often comes with a hefty price tag. With higher development costs, the Evolution golf shaft is priced at the higher end of the golf shaft market. While Cassidy predicts that the cost will eventually come down, he calls the startup costs associated with nanotechnology “a major hurdle” to overcome.
One way AccuFLEX overcame this hurdle was by balancing the advantages and the likely long-term benefits of nanotechnology with the short-term development costs.
The Evolution golf shaft mixes nanomaterial with other composites and resins. The advantage of a golf shaft made of a composite compared to a golf shaft made entirely of nanomaterial is that a composite has more flexibility and give needed for the game. Luckily, a golf shaft made entirely of nanomaterial would be would be too stiff for the game, says Cassidy.
While a golf player might need composite materials with these properties, other industries, such as automobile and construction industry could also use the extra-strong properties of some nanomaterials to their advantage. In North Carolina, some companies already use nanotechnology to make stronger materials, like durable, corrosion-resistant steel. This gradual wave of enhanced products could bring new industries to North Carolina, as well as new products to the world.
Check out more information about AccuFLEX
Learn more about the technology behind the golf shaft Nano Composite
