The Swiss company CompPair CompPair focuses on composite materials with the goal of making products more repairable. Its signature composite materials rely on what CompPair calls HealTech technology to create a repairable surface. The way it works is that when something gets scratched or dented, heating the resins that hold the fibers together can soften them and allow them to slowly return to their shape.
The process isn’t instantaneous. Depending on the break, it can take minutes or sometimes a day or more. But once it’s done, the composite should be almost as good as new. To be clear, this process has never been used on a vaulting pole. CompPair has tested its composites on mostly flat surfaces that are easier to control. Putting those composites on a vaulting pole, while maintaining the integrity of the structural fibers, is a completely different challenge.
Robin Trigueira, co-founder and CTO of CompPair, says there is a world where using these types of composite materials could help usher in more repairable sports equipment. Trigueira says he can imagine a possible future where Olympic stadiums have very long ovens where vaulters can place their repairable poles overnight to ensure they are properly sealed before the event.
“I think it’s possible,” Trigueira says. “But we need to test it thoroughly to find out something like that.”
A self-healing future
The problem with using these composite materials in a pole vault is that it is extremely difficult to ensure that they solve the problem at hand. Adding a new composite material because it is curable could also add a whole host of new variables that might not play well with the structural components of the pole. Adding a sheen to the surface to make cracks visible could change the way the vaulter grips the pole.
Every crack and crevice is different and may not heal the same way depending on how it develops. There may be some damage that is too structural to be cleared up by a little redistribution of the composite. Depending on the defect itself, it may take a long time to repair. Also, heating curable resins can ruin other composites.
Trigueira compares the process to an injury to the body. If you just have a scratch on your arm, you might not even bother doing anything about it and it will heal quickly. But if there is something deeper and more serious, it will take longer to detect and can lead to additional complications.
“It is very rare that one person suffers exactly the same injury as another,” Trigueira says. “Whether the part suffers minor scratches or deeper wounds? We need to know that so that healing can be efficient.”
The idea of using curable composite materials in posts is not new either. It already exists. since at least 2017but no posts have yet been created that can be cured. Rahrig says Essx is not currently working on any efforts to add such a healing resin or compound to its posts, though he doesn’t rule out that it could one day be used to make a more durable post.
“We’re looking at materials like this all the time,” Rahrig says. “It’s purely a research topic right now. It’s very interesting, but I’m not so sure how it would be used in a pole.”
Outside of Olympic competitions, pole vaulting has a minor presence in the broader sports world. There isn’t a lot of money in pole vaulting, so it’s likely that these types of materials will appear elsewhere first. Trigueira says CompPair isn’t currently working with any pole vault companies to put its composites in their products, but says it’s working on implementing them in more high-profile sports equipment, such as surfboards and bike pedals.
While it may be some time before this kind of innovation reaches the humble pole, both Rahrig and Trigueira say it’s possible and likely. “In 10 years, I think it’s safe to say there will be a pole with curable composite materials,” Trigueira says.