OPS Technology

[Neal 41]

CCM U+ Pro

Combat Axenic

Are you implying that these two sticks are similar in their technological advances? Or maybe even built to the same design?

Separate, from that I do think Rubo has hit on something interesting with his proposal that customization is a key direction for many product areas. I'm not sure about the foam idea though. I'd imagine the number of people who have an understanding of what the foam in a blade does, doesn't extend much past the stick design teams and a few people on this board.

But I do believe that the myBauer concept will be expanded upon by some other vendor. It may be a small vendor such as Combat or maybe someone like Sherwood who wants to get back to being a big three/four stick manufacturer. I have some ideas, but I need to think them through before I post.

[hamstercaster 2]

Going back to the Easton EQ50 stick idea, I don't see how it really pushes the envelope. For me personally one major design I like which is mostly on pro stocks, where the blade is not hollow at the fusing point and some pro players also prefer that feel and balance as well. It's filled to the top with some type of Polyurethane foam with differnt densities depending on the pro specs.

So if you give me a stick with a hollow blade which can be balanced only in a certain spot with weights yet still has a hollow feel, it's not an improvment to me at all. Plus the weight is always added in the same spot.

What I would like to see is if they somehow made the blade semi hollow with maybe three channels for each part of the blade, where a person can somehow poor in some type of polyurethane liquid foam which turns into rigid foam in each chenille separately. So one could experiment with different foam densities in each part of the blade and balance the weight. Plus they'll make more money on people buying more then one blade to run different experiments – if there is a market for this idea. This is only a concept which needs a lot more R&D on the manufacturing process

Cheers

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there a foam core in blades already which serves to dempened the puck when it hits the blade receiving a pass? It probably also prevents the blades from denting from receiving passes or taking slap shots. The tenon is hollow in most cases unless I'm wrong and filling it with liquid foam must certainly make the tenon stiffer and somewhat adding weight to the blade. Also, wouldn't adding liquid foam to the tenon affect the taper's flex or does the blade run not deep enough to do so?

[mickz 107]

I was talking to a couple guys, formerly with Innovative Hockey, and they said the True 1 was made in a single mold as well. I'm still unclear as to how it's not a "true one piece?"

[Neal 41]

They are both true, single mold OPS made by the same OEM.

That is interesting, I'll have to see if I can grab a Combat to see if I can see the difference in construction.