Grafil Injection
Legend
This may have already been mentioned somewhere, but as far as I can tell, from checking around 20 models against the known retail periods, Dunlop and Slazenger used a simple alphabetical code to date their rackets. The central letter out of three letters in the late 1980s through the early 90s (perhaps it began with the wide-bodies), or the central letter out of five letters from the mid-1990s, increases in line with known models.
The alphabetic codes follow the forms:
*A* = 1987 / 1988
to
**Z** = 2012 / 2013
E.g. KEI = 1991 for the E; TPMLC = 1999 for the M.
Just need a few more examples to confirm whether they started in 1987 or 1988.
The first letter from the 1980s-early 90s, or first two from the mid-1990s onwards, are all K**, T**, TP*** or YM***, so that's probably the factory.
The last letter from the mid-1990s onwards always seems to be C, I guess for China.
From the early 2000s, they become 7 digits ending in 17 for some reason (?). Although we can date a racket's retail launch reasonably accurately with magazine adverts, since it would take around 3-months to ship a racket, it's possible for a 2000 launch model to be made in 1999.
Feel free to fire over your codes and models, and we should be able to confirm whether A was 1987 or 88. Perhaps someone has a Max Impact series stick?
The alphabetic codes follow the forms:
*A* = 1987 / 1988
to
**Z** = 2012 / 2013
E.g. KEI = 1991 for the E; TPMLC = 1999 for the M.
Just need a few more examples to confirm whether they started in 1987 or 1988.
The first letter from the 1980s-early 90s, or first two from the mid-1990s onwards, are all K**, T**, TP*** or YM***, so that's probably the factory.
The last letter from the mid-1990s onwards always seems to be C, I guess for China.
From the early 2000s, they become 7 digits ending in 17 for some reason (?). Although we can date a racket's retail launch reasonably accurately with magazine adverts, since it would take around 3-months to ship a racket, it's possible for a 2000 launch model to be made in 1999.
Feel free to fire over your codes and models, and we should be able to confirm whether A was 1987 or 88. Perhaps someone has a Max Impact series stick?
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