Materials

WE ARE MAKERS, WE ROLL OUR OWN

CTS is our own shop – one of a small number of boutique rod companies in the world. We work closely with our boutique carbon and fibreglass suppliers to source the highest quality materials, and to obtain the optimum fibre types and resin systems to ensure all CTS blanks are at the leading edge in terms of material development.

100% CARBON CONSTRUCTION

What makes our blanks some of the best is our use of 100% uni-directional carbon fibre. We combine this with our carbon helical core (made also from 100% uni-directional carbon fibre) to obtain superior hoop strength. Hoop strength stops the blank from creasing like a drinking straw and it keeps the blank from ‘ovaling’ under pressure (softening and potentially failing).

One common alternative to our carbon helical is a uni-directional carbon with a layer of scrim. Some companies use a carbon scrim or tissue, but most use a glass scrim. A scrim is a quick and effective way to get hoop strength, but, because it is generally resin rich to fill the voids, puckering of the main carbon uni laminate can occur, causing fibre twists.

Grass scrim is also a woven material, which makes it up to 40% weaker than a non-woven material. This strength decrease is due to the strands being bent as they weave across the opposing strands.

CTS Uni-Directional Carbon versus Carbon with Glass Scrim

CONSTRUCTION AND FIBER SYSTEMS

Our designs incorporate up to five different types of fiber in each blank. Each fiber type is placed at various parts of the blank to optimise strength and weight. We’ve worked with our boutique carbon and glass suppliers to continuously maintain the most cutting edge carbon and glass matrix systems.

CTS uses five main build systems:

1. CTS HM. At 25% stiffer than our CTM IM material, we’ve selected what we believe to be the highest modulus fibre available that still maintains acceptable strength properties. Our HM system is a 57msi modulus fiber. While there are higher modulus fibres available to us, we believe the ‘in the field’ strength decreases, outweigh their benefits.
2. CTS IM. A stunning all-round material that combines great stiffness with awesome strength. The CTS IM system is a 44msi modulus fiber. It has a 20% increase in elongation to failure, over our HM system, and a 26% increase in stiffness over our HS system This system is primarily used where a slightly more robust blank is required, yet needs to retain agility and sensitivity. CTS IM uses an industry leading, low resin system. This improves the stiffness to weight ratio close to our CTS HM system.
3. CTS HS. Our super high strength carbon system. At 33msi modulus, it’s softer than both our HM and IM systems, but it more than makes up for this in its ability to flex and carry some seriously big loads, by boosting a 25% and 55% increase in elongation to failure over our IM and HM materials respectively. We use this primarily for designs that are not so weight critical. Its larger elastic region creates blanks with a wider working range.
4. CTS HSX. Based on our CTS HS fiber, this construction system utilizes more layers and a larger wall thickness to increase bend performance. It’s a heavier build system and can use additional off axis fiber layers. The bias of our HSX system is towards durability over weight and it tailored towards very heavy loads.
5. CRYSTAL GLASS™.We’ve worked long and hard to create the clearest, lightest Uni Directional S Glass system. Outstanding strength, beautiful clarity and the best stiffness to weight ratio of any glass based system available. Elongation to failure is 105% over our HS system. A little history on the making of our class leading Crystal Glass can be found here.

GT FIGHT, TRIPLE LAYER SYSTEM

The popular heavy duty GT Fight Series incorporates three unique layers:

1. 1. A 1K box weave in an unsanded finish. This layer ties together and supports the core uni-directional fibres and adds a robust outer layer capable of taking knocks and abrasion.
  2. The middle / core section of the laminate is the powerhouse for the blank. This is made from pure uni-directional carbon. We vary the grades of this material from our HS through to our IM materials depending on the area of the blank and what we want this part of the blank to achieve.
  3. A lightweight carbon helical for hoop strength and to improve compression strength. The carbon helical core varies in weight from tip through to the butt. We’re careful not to add any unnecessary weight.