Try  Woolmer Forest Composites UK.They deal in all types of tubes .Very helpfull.

thanks for your help,

i found it http://www.woolmer.co.uk/apps.html

cheers guzzz

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Fishing rods are among the most sensitive parts to manufacturing defects that are made with composites. They are very thin walled tubes that are highly stressed in use and small misalignment in fiber orientation will significantly affect strength. Thare are may manufacturing problems that can cause a wave in the fibers and therefore a defective shaft. Pay close attention to quality. The best test is flex testing the shafts.

thanks for the info Compositepro!

its very much appreciated. i will get a friend of mine experienced in composites (at least more than me) to do the flex testing for me....is there any particular equipment needed to do this or do you just flex the blanks/rods by hand and see how much flex is possible before the blank snaps?

i would prefer to do non-destructive testing if that is at all possible since these blanks will be costing me quite a bit of money.

i also hear that some graphite rods are more suspectible to breakage if they have a scratch on the surface. is there any way of testing a blank for cracks or faults without actually breaking the rod?

cheers, guz

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http://electronics.ottz.com/
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Hand flexing works okay but it would be better to make a jig that allows the blank to be rotated while flexing to an extreme curvature that might be seen in use. This would be proof testing not destructive testing. If the the blank is defective you want it to break before it gets into a customer's hands.

thanks very much for your help,

guzz

http://www.ottz.com/
http://electronics.ottz.com/
http://materials.ottz.com/
http://analytical.ottz.com/