Was the Dunlop 200g original made of nylon?

[teachingprotx]

I’m confused on this . I read somewhere that the grafil injection material is what racket manufactures use as pre preg?
So if that is true then is the 200g made up of a synthetic Kevlar like a nylon material ?
As memory serves the 200 g didn’t have a paint job. It was the material used was the paint ? I remember only decals on this

 

[Ultra 2]

The 200g didn’t use the traditional graphite fibers that were laid like many of the racquets during that time. I believe the graphite was blended with nylon for the injection mold process. That’s why the 200g played different than all the other composite sticks of that time.

 

[teachingprotx]

And still does right ? I’ve never known of another injection mold ?

 

[Ultra 2]

Well, there is the 150g, 300i & 400i which were all variants of the 200g. I don’t know of any other injection molded racquets.

 

[teachingprotx]

Which one was the lightest

 

[vsbabolat]

Which one was the lightest

The complete IMF line up was
Max150G which came out first in 1980
Max200G came out in 1982
Max300i came out in 1987
Max400i came out in 1988
Max800i came out in 1989
Max500i cam out in 1990

Slazenger Phantom IMF

The lightest was the Max400i but will still be very heavy for you

 

[Sanglier]

Well, there is the 150g, 300i & 400i which were all variants of the 200g. I don’t know of any other injection molded racquets.

There were several other efforts. The earliest commercially available injection molded tennis racquet came out in 1974, eight whole years before the 200G. However, among all the injection molded designs, only these Dunlop frames were hollow, thanks to the ingenious but expensive manufacturing process involving a low melting-point temporary metal core. This racquet really is an engineering marvel because of that, much more so than most of the contemporary hand-laid designs.

Dunlop thought that it would have been just as cheap to make a racquet in England using sophisticated machinery than to have it made in Asia by hand. As it turned out, they overestimated the cost savings of injection-molding (offset by a high rejection rate), and underestimated the ability of low-wage countries to continuously cut costs while improving quality.

One inherent disadvantage of injection molding is that you must use very short fibers at relatively low density (longer fibers and/or higher fiber density would impede the flow of the resin during the injection process), so the only way to make the racquet strong enough and to control its behavior during play is to adjust its shape and wall thickness (whereas a hand-laid frame can be easily programmed to behave differently at any given spot with adjustments in fiber type, length, density and orientation). The fact that the 200G still managed to become a classic legend despite this major handicap is a testament to the skills of its original design team.

 

[jxs653]

People say that Max 200G is prone to warpage and does this tendency have something to do with its manufacturing process?

I have had several 200Gs over the years and never had that issue though.

 

[Sanglier]

People say that Max 200G is prone to warpage and does this tendency have something to do with its manufacturing process?

That's the other tradeoff of injection molding - it works better with thermoplastics (such as nylon) than with thermoset resins (like epoxy, the most common plastic found in hand-laid frames). The chief difference between the two is that thermoplastics would melt when heated, while thermoset plastics would burn rather than melt once cured. Consequently, every injection-molded frame, including those from the 200G series, will warp if exposed to excessive heat, while hand-laid racquets can become distorted due to uneven stress, but are generally not heat-labile.

We've had a discussion here sometime ago that touched on this very subject, where we questioned the legend of Edberg's "melting" Wilson Javelin. Had the story been about a 200G, it would have been plausible at the very least, but the Javelin was a hand-laid frame without an ounce of thermoplastic in its layup, so Edberg probably cracked it during play (causing it to eventually collapse), rather than accidentally melted it down with a heater.

 

[jxs653]

Sanglier, thank you for the enlightment.

One thing to clarify: you said injection-molded frames will warp if exposed to excessive heat while hand-laid racquets can become distorted due to uneven stress.

It feels like injection-molded racquets are vulnerable to both heat AND stress. Certainly malleable material can be deformed more easily.

 

[Sanglier]

The only continuously stressed part of the racquet is its hoop, so stress-induced distortion is always in the head, and more or less in the plane of the string bed. In contrast, heat-induced warping on a thermoplastic racquet can happen anywhere on the frame, and in all three dimensions. This is why we can find lopsided or flattened heads on any badly strung frame, but only an injection-molded racquet would spoon or twist if left in a car for too long during the summer, or sat too close to a heater during the winter.

A poorly-strung 200G that was also subjected to heat torture would become positively Daliesque.

 

[Slingerland61]

Super interesting stuff! Thanks gentlemen! Here a close up of the racket in question.

 

[Zoolander]

but only an injection-molded racquet would spoon or twist if left in a car for too long during the summer, or sat too close to a heater during the winter.

I remember having had an early graphite racquet (well not that early, maybe mid 80's) practically melt and warp badly when left on the back seat of a car once. Think it may have been one of the slazenger jimmy connors ones. Why would that be?

 

[Sanglier]

I remember having had an early graphite racquet (well not that early, maybe mid 80's) practically melt and warp badly when left on the back seat of a car once. Think it may have been one of the slazenger jimmy connors ones. Why would that be?

Are you sure it's not the Phantom IMF, which is the last model on VS's list in post #6? Dunlop and Slazenger merged in 1983. Even though the brands maintained separate identities afterwards, there was some cross-pollination between the sister companies; the injection-molded Phantom IMF being the most visible example.

 

[teachingprotx]

Wish I could find a light junior model of the 200 g .. most every flagship frame of the 80’s and 90’s has one and made them and made them with top build quality to boot. The Lendl Adidas 26 was great . Same with the Wilson 85 original 26 great head prestige leconte JR amazing
Kneissl white star 26 was super cool it was all wood ! Prince graphite 2 JR amazing.. the first gen aero pro drive 26 grey and blue is the best one . And lastly the Wilson edberg 6.1 junior 26 being my all time fave junior racket or any racket ever the donnay Borg pro and all wood juniors are great too quality builds ..all the head radical 26 juniors are really solid great build
The one I always wanted was the puma super .. but it’s junior model was aluminium. Although you could make that racket shorter with the telescoping handle ..
Still on the list to try is the :
Herman Slazenger JR protege 26 @khw
Has one in the bay.. but won’t answer any questions about it
Wilson profile JR
Kneissl toms machine JR but it’s an oversize .. boo..
Fischer mag tour 26 junior
It’s fun to hit with the junior flagships of the rackets in my golden day late 80’s and early 90’s cause they still used nice fiberglass and graphite . They were just lighter and more flexy than the 27 original bigger sibling

 

[coachrick]

Back in my Dunlop days(mid-80s), I had an XLT shaped-IMF model that played like a worn-in Maxply(TOO flexy for me!). Can't remember the name; but it was one of the 'orphaned' rackets that would show up in the Greenville, SC office or Hartwell, GA warehouse from time to time. Seems like it had the coloring that combined the appearance of the 400i and the 300i.

 

[vsbabolat]

Back in my Dunlop days(mid-80s), I had an XLT shaped-IMF model that played like a worn-in Maxply(TOO flexy for me!). Can't remember the name; but it was one of the 'orphaned' rackets that would show up in the Greenville, SC office or Hartwell, GA warehouse from time to time. Seems like it had the coloring that combined the appearance of the 400i and the 300i.

It was the Slazenger Phantom IMF.

 

[coachrick]

It was the Slazenger Phantom IMF.

Had the Dunlop name on it as we didn't get to sell Slazenger as part of our group. Possibly the Phantom in disguise(is that redundant?)...but with the Dunlop markings. Had a couple of others that never made it to the US market; but they were of little consequence at the time.