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i was just reading an article on the use of hemp in fiberglass in cars. here's the article (from new scientist magazine, oct. 11-17, 2003)...perhaps it could be used in pole production?

car makers could benefit from a technique which gives the strength of fiberglass composites. this new material could replace conventional composites in car parts such as bumpers and body panels. hemp fiber has been used for centuries to make clothes, sails, ropes, etc. it has recently attracted the attention of the car industry because it is cheaper than glass fiber. but until now, materials reinforced with hemp tended to be weak and used for low-strength components such as interior panelling. Individual hemp fibers, consisting of polymer chains are hugely strong. Hemp's weakness arises from the way its fibers bind together as they grow. Bundles the width of human hair are held together with the weak natural glues lignin and pectin, and it is these bundles that are used to reinforce plastics. When creating material, the trick is to use a polymer that will bind strongly to the bundles to anchor them firmly in place. but because the fibers with hemp bundles are held together so weakly, they tend to slide againsty each other under stress, which weakens the composite. but two canadian researchers have now discovered how to remove the glues from the hemp bundles leaving only the fibers. Mohini Sain and Bhuwan Prasad at the University of Toronto, Canada, found that when the bundles were heated to more than 180 Celsius, the bundles came apart. hey think the glues probably leach out of the bundles and form a hard coating on the fibers. Treated fibers can produce composites 60% of the strength of plastics reinforced with glass fiber. And mixing four parts hemp fiber with one part glass fiber results in a composite as strong and stiff as fiberglass.

just curious as to whther or not any of you guys in the pole industry think its worth researching and perhaps using in beginning poles, perhaps in training poles? perhaps kind of like the antithesis of carbon poles. instead of being more expensive and for the more elite vaulter, one with hemp (cheaper to make), if feasible, could be bought for much cheaper and provide cheaper methods for more schools to buy to train more vaulters. any thoughts?

(my apologies for the funny phrasing of this post. its late at night and i will soon be asleep)

My guess is that the material cost for a vaulting pole is pretty low -- most of the cost is labor and overhead. 20 years ago I guy who built fiberglass speed boats told me that the material (glass reinforcement and resin) cost $1.00/pound. So maybe the vaulting pole is now $3.00/pound which means there is $10-15 worth of material in it. I'don't think incrementallycheaper material will yield a substanially cheaper pole. A cheaper pole is more a function of the manufacturing process(ie. pultruding vs. filament winding as an example).

Industrial hemp is a great material and all kinds of things can be made from it. Rope, paper, clothing, and building materials are just a few things that can easily be made from hemp. There's only one problem. It's ILLEGAL to grow in the US. The DEA classifies industrial hemp as a drug (marijuana) even though it has less than 1%THC (marijuana typically contains 7% to 20% THC). In fact, (or so I've been told) if you tried to smoke it you'ld get sick before you could get high. There's an effort underway to legalize farming of industrial hemp because of all the beneficial uses it has. See www.naihc.org for more information on industrial hemp.[/b]

It would be difficult to align the fibers of the hemp in a straight line to provide the stiffness needed. This would be necessary to provide lightness of the finished product.

But I guess you would have one smoken pole!