| The enez device, developed by Wassing and used by the ITTF to detect banned VOCs in table tennis, has gone under the knife and had a redevelopment, with the VOC sensor being made more resistant against overloading and a "Gas Alert" warning added to notify the user that a racket has much higher levels of VOCs than allowed, and that the test should be halted immediately to avoid damage to the sensor.
As forum member Andrew Gooding pointed out, Wassing has outlined the reasons for the upgrades and a number of hints for the correct use of their enez device on their website. While I'd recommend reading the document just for that alone (not to mention checking out the Flash introduction and reference material at their main web site at http://www.enez.de/ - it's quite nifty), what is also noteworthy is their mention of the use of the enez device at ITTF Junior Circuit Events, in conjunction with other tests for the rubber's gloss, evenness and thickness on player's rackets. It was found that more rackets were found to be illegal for having rubber that exceeded the allowed limit of 4.0mm for sandwich rubber, than for having illegal levels of VOCs! I wonder how often umpires and referees bother to test rubbers for being too thick in local tournaments? Not often I bet!
A number of reasons for why rackets might fail the VOC test were also given and explained, including:
- Insufficient airing of the rubber to allow VOCs to dissipate
- Use of rubber cleaners that contain VOCs
- Storing the racket with items containing VOCs
- Old VOCs from speed glue that was absorbed by the blade or racket case being transferred to the rubber
- Using non-speed glues that contain VOCs
- Using speed glue replacements that still have some VOCs
Wassing's final motto in regard to getting rid of VOCs from your racket? Airing, Airing, Airing!
|
|
| 