Posted on 20. August 20184. November 2019 by SOULSPIN — Leave a comment

Basalt – A special composite fibre

Nahaufnahme Basalt-Faser im Tischtennisschläger von SOULSPIN

Materials & production

Using Basalt-Fibre in table tennis blades

table tennis blades with basalt fibre

a hitec mesh made from stone

We are constantly on the lookout for new materials and technologies, and we came across an exciting synthetic fibre made of Basalt. This fibre actually consists of melted Basalt stone and convinced us immediately after the first tests.

BASALT FIBre MAKES TABLE TENNIS BLADES EXTREMELY FLEXIBLE

Table tennis blades with Basalt fibre are particularly suitable for players who are looking for a fast but not too stiff blade.
The special feature of Basalt blades is their enormous flexibility.
Compared to a Carbon blade they are similarly fast, but much less stiff. The table tennis blade remains very flexible due to the embedded Basalt fibres, so that you have a soft touch similar to a solid wood. In addition, the Basalt fibre ensures that the blade hardly vibrates and you get a very clear feedback.

When it comes to speed, table tennis blades with Basalt fabric are a little slower than Carbon blades. For those who don’t need an extremely high tempo, but prefer good control and a soft feel, a Basalt blade is the right choice. It also has a high spin potential, a high ball bounce and a beautiful flight curve.

BASALT – the raw material

Basalt is a black, alkaline lava rock and is abundant all over the world. It is formed everywhere where magma exits from the ground and cools to basalt lava, e.g. in regions like the volcanic Eifel. Since we live here in direct neighbourhood to the volcanic Eifel, we are of course all the more pleased that we found such a great material directly in front of our front door

Infinitely long and fine fibres can be extracted from the molten rock, which are then processed into a basalt fabric. This technology has only recently become available and is not yet widespread.

BASALT and the enviroment

Basalt fibre is a pure natural product, made of melted Basalt stone without further additives. The fabric is 100% recyclable.

If you would like to find out more about the structure and veneer combinations of our Basalt blade, then take a look at our material advice.

create your individual blade with basalt fibre

In our Configurator you can create your own table tennis blade with basalt and adapt it to your wishes.

CREATE YOUR OWN BASALT BLADE

these table tennis blades contain basalt:

Do you have any questions about table tennis blAdes with Basalt fibre?

Just leave us a comment below – we are happy to answer your questions

Posted on 19. August 201828. September 2018 by SOULSPIN — Leave a comment

VIDEO: Laser engraving of serial numbers

Video So lasern wir die individuelle Seriennummer auf ihr Tischtennis-Holz

insights into production

THIS IS HOW WE LASER THE SERIAL NUMBERS ONTO OUR TABLE TENNIS bladeS

Video: How we laser the serial numbers

In this video we show you how we burn the unique serial numbers into our blades using a laser.

EACH OF OUR bladeS IS MARKED WITH AN INDIVIDUAL SERIAL NUMBER

This means that even after many years we can still see for whom the blade was built, when it was built and, most importantly, how the veneer is constructed. We burn this individual serial number with a laser into the blade just above the handle – so that it is later covered by the rubber.

So if you want to order another blade even years later and don’t remember what you ordered back then, we just need your serial number and can tell you exactly how you configured your blade.

In addition there is a certificate of authenticity for each table tennis blade, which contains the same serial number and shows again how the blade is assembled.

Last but not least, there is a small thank you in the form of a mini-bat that goes with every table tennis blade. This mini racket consists of exactly the same piece of wood as its large counterpart and is therefore also a small unique specimen. It also has to be placed under the laser, where it is marked with the SOULSPIN logo and can then be used by you as a key ring.

Have fun with the video!

Do you have any questions about the serial number?

Just leave a comment below – we are happy to answer!

Posted on 18. August 201831. October 2018 by SOULSPIN — Leave a comment

VIDEO: How we mill the handles for our blades

Video: This is how we mill the handles for our table tennis blades

Insights into production

How we mill then handles for our blades

manufacturing of table tennis blades

Milling the handles: This is how we build the handles for our rackets

A large part of our production is done by hand – but the racket handles are made with real HiTec.

In this video we show you how we mill the handles for our blades and take you on a ride with our CNC milling machine

We are often asked why we do not manufacture the handles by hand. Quite simply because this is really about precision.

We have been tinkering with our handle shapes for a long time – taking 1mm away here, packing 2/10mm on there – until the handles were perfectly formed in our opinion. And because half a millimeter can make a big difference, the whole thing has to be reproducible – and that is simply not possible by hand. After all, we want each of our blades to fit perfectly in the hand and our customers to get an equally perfect handles, even if they order a second blade years later.

Enjoy the ride with our milling machine

P.S. We warn you – the video stretches a bit

But that’s how long it takes for a pair of handle shapes to be milled out!

Do you have any questions about making handles for table tennis blades ?

Just leave a comment below – we are happy to answer your questions

Posted on 9. August 201831. October 2018 by SOULSPIN — Leave a comment

How to keep rubbers fresh

Keep table tennis rubbers fresh in the COCOON packaging

insights into production

THIS IS HOW OUR RUBBERS ARE PACKED IN THE COCOON

Keep table tennis rubbers fresh

Why we store our table tennis rubbers in the cocoon packaging

Playing with old rubbers is absolutely no fun! You can’t build up speed anymore, not to mention spin – who doesn’t know this problem?

It’s very annoying when you buy new rubbers that have been in stock for an eternity. If rubbers are stored for too long, they lose their original playing characteristics, become brittle and unusable.

To prevent this from happening with our rubbers, we have thought about how to keep table tennis rubbers fresh just like on the first day. From this idea came the COCOON, a special packaging that can keep table tennis rubbers fresh just like on the first day – even for years.

THE SECRET FOR FRESH RUBBERS

Air pressure! Very simple All our rubbers are packed under air pressure in the COCOON – the increased pressure prevents gases from escaping from the rubber, so that the rubbers remain fresh and retain their properties even after long storage.

Since there has been a lot of speculation whether we will fill the COCOON with chemicals, we have made a short video about this. All clean air

DO YOU HAVE ANY FURTHER TIPS ON HOW TO KEEP TABLE TENNIS RUBBERS FRESH ?

JUST WRITE US IN THE COMMENTS BELOW – WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR SUGGESTIONS!

Posted on 9. August 201826. September 2018 by SOULSPIN — Leave a comment

Why we only use sawn veneers for building our table tennis blades

Sawn veneers for building high-quality table tennis blades

insights into production

Why we use only selfmade sawn veneers for our blades

WITHOUT GOOD RAW MATERIAL YOU CANNOT BUILD GOOD TABLE TENNIS blades. THAT’S WHY WE DON’T USE PREFABRICATED, INEXPENSIVE VENEERS, BUT SAW EACH ONE SEPARATELY FROM THE RAW BLOCK OF WOOD. THE AMOUNT OF WORK INVOLVED IS ENORMOUS, BUT THIS WAY WE CAN BE SURE THAT WE HAVE THE BEST MATERIAL FOR BUILDING OUR blades. THE EFFORT IS WORTH IT!

the production of sawn veneers

THE FIRST STEP TO FINISHED TABLE TENNIS BLADE

First, blocks with a side surface of 180 x 280 mm are cut from the raw wood. These are already subjected to a quality control here – blocks with cracks or disturbing inclusions have no chance and are not further processed.
At the band saw, these blocks are sawn piece by piece into individual sawn veneers.

Standard table tennis blades are largely made from sliced veneers. Although the production of sliced veneers is far less complex and much cheaper than that of sawn veneers, the material suffers greatly from the manufacturing process.

Before slicing, the wood is steamed, sometimes even boiled, which makes the wood very brittle and thus extremely unstable. The surface is rough and the wood loses its beautiful natural colour and turns grey.

  For these reasons, cheap sliced veneers are out of the question for us.

Instead, we saw each veneer individually by hand in the following thicknesses:
0.6/ 0.8/ 1.0/ 1.2/ 1.5/ 2.2/ 3.2 mm.

Then the first fine sanding of the surfaces takes place.

The difference between sawn veneers and sliced veneers

IN THIS PICTURE YOU CAN SEE WHY WE TAKE THE EFFORT TO PRODUCE OUR OWN SAW VENEERS INSTEAD OF BUYING CHEAP SLICED VENEERS.

The surface of the sliced veneer is grey and brittle, the whole veneer is very unstable.
A high-quality sawn veneer, on the other hand, has a beautiful wood tone and is very stable in itself, because the wood structure is retained and is not damaged.

DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT BUILDING TABLE TENNIS BLADES?

IF YES, JUST WRITE US IN THE COMMENTS BELOW AND WE WILL BE HAPPY TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS!