New Decathlon tennis racket features flax fibres
Asked by sporting goods company Decathlon to design a tennis racket with improved shock absorbency, Frederic Malek from France-based racket sport equipment provider Artengo created new racket using flax fibres.
Rather than using glass fibres, the new lightweight Artengo 820 racket uses a flax/carbon fibre composite. According to the company, the technology offers tennis players excellent comfort and control. With a lower density than glass fibre, flax eliminates carbon’s vibration tendencies while maintaining its responsiveness.
And flax is also being used to create sailboards. Pierre Bracar, a designer of custom-made sail sailboards at Sun-7, has developed a new board using a prepreg flax composite developed with Belgium-based flax specialist Lineo. According to Sun-7 the composite is not only very functional and technical, but also more sustainable.
