ElectriPlast: The Sportsman's Dream?

Grand Slam it, Bogey it, Ace it, Punt it,

Slap Shot it, Tackle it, or Down Hill it.


What Else Can This Badboy Do?


By Vince S.
ElectriPlast Blog Editor-in-Chief


[Editor’s Note: Periodically, the ElectriPlast Blog puts an Integral Technologies patent under the microscope to let shareholders know the range of our expanding portfolio of Intellectual Property. Here, we’re looking at sporting equipment manufactured from conductively doped resin-based materials, ElectriPlast.]


A Cornucopia of Commercial Capability

Although the subhead might easily satisfy a hip-hop lyricist, the terminology comes straight from the pages of a sportsman’s glossary. More to the point, the subhead covers a range of sports enjoyed by billions of people worldwide. It also focuses on one of the 134 patents Integral Technologies has filed.

Our patents cover a wide world of sports: baseball, softball, football, hockey, golf, skiing, skate boarding and ski boarding, tennis, racquetball, badminton, fencing and cricket. Curiously, basketball is missing from the list, but that’s because this list focuses on “striker” equipment: bats, rackets, golf clubs, fencing foils, balls and pucks. Also in the Integral repertoire are protective equipment and pads, face guards and shields, helmets, shoulder gear, trunk protectors, and shin guards. So, in honor of the Major League Baseball playoffs, the looming World Series and Super Bowl, not to mention the XXIX Olympiad in Beijing in 2008, this article speaks to the enormous impact ElectriPlast could have on the wide world of sports.


The Trampoline Effect

A corollary of slogging through patent filings is the odd educational gem one frequently finds in the arcane patent language which is largely unchanged since the birth of the Republic. One such “gem,” the “trampoline effect,” is a term I hadn’t associated with golf—does Tiger know about this? —yet I learned that a golf club head flexes inward and springs back when it whacks a Callaway or Nike straight and true down the fairway. The trampoline effect is aided by the whipping action of the golf club shaft. These two combine to propel that dimpled little ball to great distances. Cool! So “striker” sports equipment benefit from the “trampoline effect” and/or “whipping action,” which, apparently, is increased by the conductivity of ElectriPlast.

At this point, some of you might be saying, “Yeah, so what?” Well, the sports equipment market is a multi-billion dollar industry just waiting for ElectriPlast to disrupt and exploit.


The Wide World of Sports: A Booming Business

The US sports products industry is approaching $115 billion according to a recent report by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. This lucrative industry consists of sales of sporting goods equipment, exercise equipment, sports apparel, licensed merchandise, athletic footwear, and recreational transport (the ubiquitous golf cart). ElectriPlast has a solution for many of these product areas, including baseball and softball bats and batting helmets; football helmets and shoulder and trunk protection; golf clubs, woods, irons, putters and balls; cricket bats, balls, helmets, shin guards and face guards; fencing foils, masks and vests; hockey sticks, masks, faceguards and pucks; and tennis rackets, skis and ski poles, snowboards, surf boards, fishing poles, high jump poles, etc., and other applications.

To be sure, not all sports equipment will lend itself to ElectriPlast manufacturing; however, even 1% of the sports equipment and product market could be huge for Integral Technologies. And for you Greenies out there in EB land, consider all the hickory, aspen and ash trees Integral could save, if baseball bats, softball bats and hockey sticks were made from ElectriPlast!


ElectriPlast Beats Rigid Plastic

Football, the gladiator’s sport, is fast, exciting and dangerous. If you’ve watched the game long enough on any level, high school, college or professional, chances are you have seen a player go down after a tremendous hit. Some helmet-to-helmet collisions have caused paralytic injuries and worst. While the rigid plastic used in protective equipment provides some protection, rigid plastics do not absorb high impact shock waves. Sadly, in some cases, the brain moves violently within the skull, with devastating results.

According to Integral’s patent, ElectriPlast-based protective equipment can better absorb and dissipate the impact’s energy, thus protecting against concussive injury. Moreover, ElectriPlast meets the manufacturers’ requirements for low cost, low weight and durability.

With an ElectriPlast-enabled antenna embedded in a quarterback’s helmet, we might see better communication between the sidelines and the offense. (No more dropped calls from the coach!) And what about that sizzling slap shot, the one we always missed? A hockey puck with an embedded antenna could signal a positioning receiving sensor inside a television camera to focus the camera on the puck throughout the game. And, finally, how about an ElectriPlast golf ball with GPS tuning? No more lost balls!

As they might say at Wimbledon, “Advantage, ITKG!”