Can Other Companies Use ALC and ZLC Carbon?
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Topic: Can Other Companies Use ALC and ZLC Carbon?
Posted By: CSTableTennis
Subject: Can Other Companies Use ALC and ZLC Carbon?
Date Posted: 09/22/2020 at 3:11pm
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I am interested in purchasing a blade with ALC or ZLC without the huge price tag that tends to come with Butterfly products. I am wondering if other companies are able to use that exact carbon type legally? Is this something Butterfly has developed (has a trademark) on their own or is this material available for all companies to use? If not, what types of similar carbon should I be looking for that are not trademarked? Thanks for the help!
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Replies:
Posted By: cole_ely
Date Posted: 09/22/2020 at 3:16pm
I know yinhe advertises those composites on some things. also plc and hlc or something like that ------------- Wavestone St with Illumina 1.9r, defender1.7b Please let me know if I can be of assistance. |
CSTableTennis wrote:Posted By: Hipnotic
Date Posted: 09/22/2020 at 3:53pm
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Butterfly only owns the name, not the fiber itself. ALC is what Butterfly calls Arylate woven with carbon. Arylate is nothing more than a fiber with the commercial name of Vectran. They don't own the fiber but they do have a proprietary weave pattern that I think no other company has. Some companies used to claim they used arylate or alc or something, but they had to change the name and now call it something that resembles that. Sometimes they will try to fool the costumer with a blue fiber, especially the cheap chinese brands, when this is in fact Diolen-Carbon. In the case of zylon it's simpler. Zylon is the commercial name for PBO fiber. In this case Butterfly uses a standard weave pattern, which is relatively easy to access by other companies. I don't think Butterfly has any rights on Zylon, but they have on ZLC so most companies now choose to call this fiber by its original name PBO. So, in the case of ALC you won't find anything that is exactly the same, but you have plenty of options that come really close at a cheaper price point. For ZLC you have plenty of options that are just as good if not better. ------------- SDC Handmade Blades / http://www.sdcttblades.com" rel="nofollow - www.sdcttblades.com / Insta - @sdc_tt_blades / Facebook - @SDCblades |
Posted By: Baal
Date Posted: 09/22/2020 at 4:34pm
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A few years ago I was wondering about some of this and did some research and this is what I found: Some companies produce the various fibers. This is more or less a chemical process. Only one company makes Vectran (whst Btfly calls Arylate) Other companies then buy the fibers and use them to fabricate various woven fabrics, for example cross-weaves with carbon, etc. etc. They can vary threads per cm etc. etc. There are multiple companies that do this -- not a whole lot but a few. It clearly must require specialized industrial equipment. It is more of a mechanical process. Companies like Butterfly then buy the fabrics and put them into the blades. Anybody ought to be able to buy the weaves. The zylon ones tend to be expensive because I believe the fiber is expensive to produce. But you might want to check with a company like Soulspin or one of the custom blade makers who post here from time to time to see if they can build you one for a bit less. Before going through all that trouble, though, the best thing to do is hit with a clubmates ALC or ZLC blade to see if it feels ok to you. They are popular, somebody is bound to have one.
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Posted By: stiltt
Date Posted: 09/22/2020 at 4:43pm
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One of the fastest stiffest and yet quite light blade I used was the Xiom Hayabusa ZXi. A Z in their blade means zylon and ZX is zylon carbon. I do not remember the difference between ZX amd ZXi in XIOM's Hayabusa series, I think the ZX is the "innerforce" version of the ZXi, like the Apolonia is to the MJ. Zephilium Carbon blades from XIOM is one way to go. They also have plenty of ALC equivalent blades. Donic and Joola have a lot of those alc/zlc like blades too.
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Posted By: CSTableTennis
Date Posted: 09/24/2020 at 3:32pm
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Thank you all very much. This is my first post to the forum and all of you have been wildly helpful and seem extremely informed! I have recently been extremely interested in the different types of carbon, their qualities, and how they might suit my game. There is not much info online beyond all of the basics, so I do truly appreciate the help! Thanks again!
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