[pianotech] Shank questions

[John Delacour]

At 19:51 -0500 25/05/2011, William Monroe wrote:

>...it sure is nice to be able to heat a shank and twist it into 
>position, as we do wooden shanks.  Score one for pultrusion, I say.

Hardly.  No matter by what process the tube is made, this will be 
possible.  It is the polymer that becomes flexible, not the carbon 
fibre reinforcement.  The pul[l]truded version has the fibres running 
along the length of the shank.  To quote:

         Pulltrusion
        
         This process of creating carbon fibre tubes works
         by pulling carbon fibres through a die. This
         production technique is optimal for mass produced
         tubes but can only create tubes with all the
         fibres running in the same direction along the
         length of the tube. This is fine for tubes that
         will only be in compression or tension, but in
         reality there are usually a number of forces
         acting on the tube. These tubes have little
         strength in other directions.



JD