2009 Factory Vault Symposium The History And Evolution

2009 Factory Vault Symposium The History And Evolution of the Carbon Vaulting Pole and FX Design

Overview • If you stop looking to improve will the competition do the same? • In what sport would the preferred mode be twenty year old methods and technology? • Carbon Fiber • Probing the basic design ( leads to FX) • Probing the material properties envelop • Testing at the Plant – Data • Using the tools – Vaulting • Right tool for the right person

Stroll through Gill Athletics, Inc. and a short history of poles 1918 – Harry Gill starts making track and field equipment 1949 - Herb Jenks and his first fiberglass pole 1951 – Fiberglass poles carried in a track equipment booklet 1951 – Giltal Vaultmaster Metal Poles 1960 – Gill Fiberlite (fiberglass pole) carried steel, bamboo and fiberglass poles 1966 – Gill Big Red Fiberglass pole 1967 – “New in 1967” Training Poles – also 16’ Big Red’s 1967 – Rankin Method – weight rating versus hand hold height for fiberglass poles 1976 – Gill Vaultmaster II brown fiberglass pole is being phased out and Gill is now carrying Dark Blue Skypoles 1976 – Patent on Fiberglass Vaulting Pole issued, Herbert Jenks, Assignee, AMF Incorporated. Bob Prideaux a pattern cutter at Pacer is still helping make poles at Gill Athletics, Inc. 1984 – Skypole and equipment sold to Gill. Ralph Paquin is 1 st Gill Employee trained on Skypole manufacturing, Ralph is still working at Gill in Engineering Group. 1985 – A few Light Blue Skypoles had carbon material - prototyping 1987 – Pacer Line and equipment for building poles, Herb Jenks patent and technology sold to Gill. 1988 – Gill is testing Carbon Skypoles 2001/2002 – FX (Functional Design) – 2003 Started looking at advanced materials 2008 – Oct 21 - Patent Issued on Carbon Weave Vaulting Poles

Carbon Fiber • • Carbon fiber – 1958, Dr. Roger Bacon created high-performance carbon fibers at the Union Carbide Parma Technical Center, located outside of Cleveland, Ohio PAN aerospace/high end carbon fiber – polyacrylonitrile Advantages – weight-to-strength ratio – extremely low flex fatigue over time Disadvantages – Higher cost – Lower elongation limit • Potential – Steeper stress strain curve

Carbon Fiber in Poles

Pattern books contain thousands of the early carbon poles designs including going from Skypole to the Pacer line – Carbon Skypole was first

What was behind FX • Pacer – Sail Pattern Design – Who uses this now • What was the goal – Transition in wgt – Transition in length • What was the result – Vault over 6 m on a pole you just got?

• • Why would mandrel diameter go down when wgt rating goes up This was a Pacer trait pre FX project

65 percent chord length

3 D Modeling

Tools to Understand Better • • • Video Taping Arc Lines – Factory Vaults Dynamic Testing Dartfish Anaylsis Software 3 D Solid modeling (Solid. Works) – Motion Capabilities – FEA Capabilities

New Generation of Carbon • • • 2003 to the present – first was a treat NCAA Champ’s Medalist on World Stage WJR, National Records 2009 EIC Champ Just another step in the continued quest for improvement

Mikko Latvala feedback • • • • Comparison between Pacer FX, Carbon FX and Carbon Weave. Best results with different models. In brackets is best result, biggest pole and lenght I have used with each model. At the end there is year when I have done it. Old Carbon 566 (13. 7/5. 00 m) -01 Carbon FX 560 (14. 4/5. 10 m) -02 Carbon FX 560 (13. 7/5. 00 m) -05 Pacer FX 563 (14. 6/5. 00 m) -08 Carbon Weave 550 (14. 3/5. 00 m) -09 Weight: Weave feels very light, a little bit lighter than Carbon FX but big difference to Pacer FX. It is much easier to control my run up and planting with Weave. Bending: Even my take off is not so good and I have quite low grips(4. 80 -4. 90), weave started to bend quite easily. It felt ”softer” in take off than Carbon FX. Weave and Pacer FX are quite close each other at take off but what makes it easier is the weight of the pole. I think Weave has the best bend, it is more circular than Carbon FX and Pacer FX. I think weave is not so exact for take off angle. Even if vault is moving forward is a little bit low, it still bend very circular. (if you understand what I am meaning) Recoil: I think Pacer FX has slowest recoiling of these three models. Weave and Carbon FX has quite similar recoil. But anyway all these three models has quite fast recoil. I did one pv session with 14. 9/500 spirit pole and its recoil was much slower than weave´s. I used Weave poles only twice in Chula Vista, so experiences are mostly from one competition I did there.

What works for the vaulter • • The right tool F 1 versus limo Beginner versus elite One pole versus various poles – Different lengths – Different ratings or flexs – Different Designs

Questions?