Wood Bat Wars; Ash vs Maple
2 Sep 2014 by Mark Howard
What happens if players hit on the flat-grain face of white ash?
When bat-ball contact is made repeatedly on the flat-grain face of ash bats, it is well known that ash bats will “flake”. This is technically called “annual ring separation”, and is the failure of the wood cells along the earlywood-latewood interface. This occurs primarily because the wood is a ring-porous species. Below is a photo of a bat that has failed by annual ring separation.
Example of annual ring separation in white ash Because hard maple is a diffuse-porous species, there are no pronounced bands of large earlywood cells. This means that annual ring separation is not often observed in hard maple baseball bats – and there is no need to orient a hard maple baseball bats to make contact on the edge-grain face.
The next logical question… should there be a preferred orientation to hit with a hard maple baseball bat? Preferred orientation for hitting with a hard maple baseball bat
Past research data on the impact bending strength of wood were studied, and it was found that wood has the highest impact bending strength (i.e. toughness) when it is stressed on the face grain. Results indicate that toughness is up to 30% higher when contact is made on the flat-grain face vs. contact made on the edge-grain face.
When bat-ball contact is made repeatedly on the flat-grain face of ash bats, it is well known that ash bats will “flake”. This is technically called “annual ring separation”, and is the failure of the wood cells along the earlywood-latewood interface. This occurs primarily because the wood is a ring-porous species. Below is a photo of a bat that has failed by annual ring separation.
Example of annual ring separation in white ash Because hard maple is a diffuse-porous species, there are no pronounced bands of large earlywood cells. This means that annual ring separation is not often observed in hard maple baseball bats – and there is no need to orient a hard maple baseball bats to make contact on the edge-grain face.
The next logical question… should there be a preferred orientation to hit with a hard maple baseball bat? Preferred orientation for hitting with a hard maple baseball bat
Past research data on the impact bending strength of wood were studied, and it was found that wood has the highest impact bending strength (i.e. toughness) when it is stressed on the face grain. Results indicate that toughness is up to 30% higher when contact is made on the flat-grain face vs. contact made on the edge-grain face.
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