This question is by far the most common question we are asked when helping customers choose their new English Willow bat in our shops. There are a few common things we look for when helping our customers choose their new cricket bat - Number of Grains, width of grains, appearance of any redwood, or knots - and also the consistency of the willow.
Most of our "top end" cricket bats will offer amazing consistency in terms of the number of grains, the distance they are spaced out, a the lack of any major blemishes, and usually minimal if any at all appearance of redwood. This will offer a superb playing surface which is very consistent and usually will play very nicely.
We have many other Grades which have been developed over the years to satisfy the different demands from all the different markets across the world. There are bound to be some small knots or blemishes on the bat, after all it is a natural product and cannot be expected to be perfect, with no faults at all.
The only main differences in the grade are the visual appearance of the wood including amounts of butterfly stain plus the number of blemishes or knots on the blade and the straightness of the grain. Generally the more colour in the blade the lower the grade, there is however negligible difference in the playing ability, it is purely a perception that if it looks good it will play well, this is not the case.
Butterfly stain the stain resembles the shape of a butterfly , for example, used to be very popular for its superior strength and playing ability. It does make very good bats that are very strong and perform well. The factors that affect the rate of growth are the soil quality and amount of water available. In these modern times when growers want a quick return on their investment, trees have been planted in the most ideal site for the tree to grow quickly.
This means that in the future there are going to be less narrow grain trees available. In this respect we have cut mature trees in as little as 10 years, but generally 12 to 18 years gives a wider grain with 25 years or more a narrower grain. A narrow grain bat will certainly play well, quicker, but will not have a particularly long life.
On the other hand a wider grain bat with as little as 4 grains on the face will play as well, given time, as a narrow grain, it will also , without doubt have a longer life span.
The reason for this is that the wood is not as old, so it is stronger and will stand up better to the beating with some of the very hard balls used in matches. We are finding with the climate changing and growing seasons getting longer, that the amount of narrow grain we are producing is getting less as a percentage.
There is nothing we can do about it and players will have to adapt in the coming years to accepting more wider grains. Our friendly team can assist you finding your perfect bat! You have items in your cart.
Bat Covers. Bat Accessories. Bat Grips. Packages and Cricket Sets. Gift Card. Junior - Plastic Cricket Equipment. Tape Ball Cricket. Articles English Willow - Grading and general information. Batting Gloves. Wicket Keeping Gloves. Batting Inners. When a patient could have 1 or 2 tabs, the nurse used this way to indicate how many she gave. Has 10 years experience. You might see it as i or I.
With grains it tends to be the smaller case i. Are you sure? I'm not saying that you are wrong. I'm just confused now. Oh wow:o! Yes Dixie, you are absolutley correct. Oh and wanted to add that roman numerals are in upper cases and apothercary notation i in lower case. I guess we both learned something. I was just told it corresponded to the Roman numerals. I wondered why they didn't just use capital letters then. Now I understand.
Step 2: Mounting samples for microstructural analysis A mounting process is used to fix the cut pieces so they can be handled more easily and to standardize their dimensions. A range of hot and cold mounting techniques and resins can be used, although epoxy or acrylic resin are typical. Cold mounting: up to approx. Find out more Get more knowledge, expertise and insight in our mounting section.
See our range of mounting machines and equipment. Get consumables and accessories for metallographic hot and cold mounting. Step 3: Grinding and polishing samples for microstructural analysis The grinding and polishing process is the most important step when preparing a sample for examination under microscope.
During this process, the macroscopic roughness of the cut surface is reduced to a reflective surface. If the intention is only to make the macrostructure visible — typically for examination using a stereo microscope or magnifying glass — a few coarse grinding steps and contrasting with acidic or alkaline solutions is sufficient.
These samples are often prepared unmounted to save time. To make the microscopic elements of the structure visible under a reflected-light microscope, a mirror finish is required.
The grinding and polishing process flow for a mirror is as follows: Initial coarse grinding is performed on the surface. The surface is gently polished with fine to very fine abrasives until nearly all damaged areas are removed, typically using diamond, aluminum oxide or colloidal silicon dioxide on appropriate polishing cloths and discs.
The surface is checked using the differential interference contrast DIC — a contrast option in reflected light microscopes — to ensure the surface quality is high enough to continue with etching.
If deformation can still be seen in DIC, further polishing steps are required. The surface is etched to enhance contrasts that are invisible or only visible to a limited extent under brightfield conditions. Typically, only weak acids are used.
Corrosion-resistant steel requires special etching processes, such as color etching. See our range of grinding and polishing machines and equipment. Get consumables and accessories for metallographic grinding and polishing.
Analysis characterization of metal grain structures Once metallographic preparation is complete, metal grain structures can be visibly analyzed under a light microscope. This typically occurs at magnifications of 25x to x, which corresponds to the limits of traditional light microscopy. Table 1: Examples of applying contrasting techniques for examining metallic structures. Contrasting techniques There are a number of contrasting techniques that can be used to assess the structural properties of metal.
Darkfield The darkfield technique is mainly used in the microscopy of non-metal materials. DIC differential interference contrast DIC is a useful tool for analyzing very fine deformations that may still be present in the surface after polishing. Polarization contrast The polarization contrast is primarily used in the analysis of materials with a hexagonal lattice structure, such as titanium, zinc and magnesium.
Fluorescence Fluorescence can be used in metal and material microscopy, as certain materials are excited at a certain wavelength and so emit visible light at another wavelength. Light microscope equipment for grain structure analysis Microstructural analysis is an extremely useful tool in metallography, as it reveals a great deal of information regarding the structural properties of a metal and its characteristics.
This can be used to assess the metal design and processing stages, as well as in quality control and failure analysis. However, special optics must be used when viewing the structural properties of metal because the excitation and object lighting are directed through the same optical system. Cameras must also be capable of processing high contrast values. The microscope can be either upright or inverted. However, inverted is advantageous for large specimens or when viewing clamped specimens in specimen holders.
High-definition stereo microscopes are used less frequently for structural interpretations. The image generated by the microscope must be rendered faithfully and be suitable for integration into current documentation systems. Precise field flattening EPI Because the illumination and contrasting of the reflective samples is performed by the imaging optics — the microscope objective — special requirements apply to the design and light guide.
Furthermore, the objective must exhibit precise field flattening characteristics for object measurement. These types of objectives are specially optimized for reflected-light specimens and can be recognized by the abbreviation EPI e. Digital cameras The digital camera requirements for metallic samples must be optimized for measuring and documentation purposes. A highly dynamic imaging camera chip displays metal surfaces and their high levels of contrast in an ideal way.
Digital microscopes Thanks to rapid optical development, digital microscopes are an increasingly interesting tool for structural analyses. Get insight into other materials If you would like to learn more about the materialography of other metals and materials, check out our materials page.
Get the full application note Want to read the full application note on metallic grain structures and microscopic analysis? Download it here. This application note was prepared by our application specialist Holger Schnarr in cooperation with optics and optoelectronics experts Zeiss. For specific information about metallic grain structures and microscopic analysis contact our application specialists.
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