Demonstrating the fatigue resistance of HealTech™ sandwich structures

Sports equipment is exposed to repeated impacts throughout its lifetime, making fatigue resistance a key requirement for long-term performance and durability.

To evaluate the behaviour of HealTech™ sandwich structures under cyclic loading, CompPair conducted fatigue testing using representative padel racquet constructions and layups.

Three samples were tested on a standard fatigue impact demonstrator:

-            A conventional reference sandwich structure

-            A virgin HealTech™ sandwich structure

-            A HealTech™ sandwich structure subjected to a healing cycle

After a predetermined service interval, the HealTech™ structure underwent healing cycles, before continuing the fatigue tests.

The results clearly demonstrate the ability of HealTech™ materials to recover mechanical performance after repeated impacts. While conventional structures progressively lose properties during cyclic loading, the healed HealTech™ sample consistently recovered close to its initial performance levels following the healing process.

These results highlight the strong potential of HealTech™ for applications exposed to frequent impacts and fatigue loading, particularly in sports equipment such as padel racquets, bicycles, protective gear, and other high-performance composite structures.

By extending product lifetime and maintaining performance over time, HealTech™ offers a promising route towards more durable and sustainable composite sports equipment.

Fatigue machine set up