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