Do you think it would work?

Hi HenDirk,

It would certainly be perfectly practical to reinforce the back of a cricket bat with carbon fibre. I don't think it would be difficult to do either. You coudl use either a conventional woven cloth like a 200g plain weave carbon fibre or a 200g 2/2 twill weave carbon fibre or alternatively, you could use a unidirectional (none-woven) material like our 250g unidirectional carbon fibre. The advantage of unidrectional material would be that it would add more stiffness lengthways down the blade (where you need it) and not waste material reiforcing the bat width-ways (where it doesn't need it).

I would probably do it using our rapid repair epoxy resin because it  has the highest bond strength and flexural strength. Ensure the back of the bat is clean, dry, de-greased and lightly keyed with abrasive paper and then paint rapid repair resin directly onto the bat. Then layer on your chosen carbon fibre reinforcement (like the 250g unidrectional) and wet through with a brush and more resin. Add a few layers, depending on how much stiffness you want to add, and then when you're finished, pull release film really tight over the whole back of the bat and squeegy any air bubbles out of the laminate. Once cured, remove the film and tidy up the edges.

Here's a video of us repairing a kayak where we use the same release film method. This link will take you straight to the right part of the video: Pulling release film tight over a carbon fibre repair.

I don't think the carbon fibre will come to any harm used like this on the back of the bat. The only advantage to Kevlar or Aramid fibre would be in impact resistance and since the back of the bat won't be directly struck I don't think this would help, plus, Kevlar is not as strong in tensile strength and so wouldn't give you the same stiffness advantages that carbon would.

I hope this helps and look forward to hearing how you get on.

All the best, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

Cheers Matt, thats a huge help!

I'm not sure how the unidirectional would behave if the 'back edge' was struck, it might be a problem, it might not. If I was going to include to woven I'd go for a plain weave (it's easier to handle and keeps itself neater); like you say, maybe a woven and a 250g unidrectional with the woven on top. This would make the 'skin' less likely to fracture if a ball did nick the back edge at speed.

For your trimming, just make everything slightly too large and then cut the overhang off with a trimming knife or hacksaw blade once everything's fully cured before you rub the edge back using a sanding block until it's perfectly smooth.

All the best, Matt

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

What I was trying say is if the impact is, say 2cm off the centre line of bat, still on the front face, would the epoxy be strong enough to get it going back to the centre and through the handle? 

Oh, OK, I understand where you're going. You are just adding this to the back of an existing wooden bat though arn't you? - In which case, the carbon is just adding extra lateral stiffness to the blade where there is already stifness - the bat itself spreads the impact of the ball over a large area. I don't think there would be any detectable difference in how that thin skin of carbon transfers energy to the handle based on the position of the ball strike. The overall action requires a lateral stiffness and the unidirection fibre will enhance the lateral stiffness of the bat.

Anyway, we are straying a bit beyond technical support on our materials!

Matt Statham
Easy Composites / Carbon Mods - Technical Sales

I had a young lady call me at work regarding this several months ago ,she was designing a cricket bat and asked about carbon fibre, Unfortunately as with most things we deign for sports to give a competitive advantage, your right it gets banned very quickly