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world gathers for metal finishing
Q&As since 1989


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Aluminum-scandium alloy in baseball bats

How much faster will a baseball travel coming off the bat of an aluminum alloy with scandium as opposed to an alloy without scandium?

James Wolf
Walter Johnson Baseball League
1998

With respect to the trampoline behavior, this is best addressed to EASTON in Van Nuys, CA..

Steve Kennedy
Ashurst Technology
1998

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Ed. note: Readers may be interested in Advanced Aluminum Alloys Containing Scandium : Structure and Properties [affil link on Amazon] by L. S. Toropova, et al.

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1998

Hi, I'm currently enrolled in a Chem 120 class at Diablo Valley College, and I was wondering if you know why the NCAA were planning to control the composition of bats and considering banning the use of "ekaboron"=scandium, completely in bat manufacture. I would greatly appreciate it if you could tell me anything you know.

Until then, I'll keep reading the facts about Scandium and trying to learn why. Thanks for all your help.

Jihane Bou-Ghosn

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1999

Hi I am a highschool student who is doing a science project on comparing different aluminum alloys.

Could you tell me what the EA70 alloy model BE11 is really made of? Also TPX air attack1?

Any other alloys to which you know the components of would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Kevin Toomey

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I am doing a paper on why I believe aluminum bats should be outlawed in college baseball and maybe even high school baseball. I feel very strongly about this subject because I had my right eye socket shattered my senior year while pitching in a high school baseball game. Anyway, I was wondering how much faster a baseball from an aluminum bat is in comparison to wooden bats. Is there an average difference in the speed?

Nathan Blacketer
1999

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1999

I "stumbled" across this site - and was wondering if anyone can tell me where I can find out more about the "aluminum versus wooden" bat question. I saw a story on FoxSports recently about this - I hadn't heard about it before then - and apparently their story was a "follow-up" to another story they did over a year ago. I guess I didn't realize that the aluminum bats hit the ball that much faster. Have there been a lot of injuries caused by this? I would like to get "updated" and, since you see to have been discussing this already, I thought you might know where I can get more info. Thanks!

Mike Brennan
Berkley, Michigan

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I am doing my term paper on metal versus wooden baseball bats and was wondering if anyone could hook me up with some site where I could get some information on both kinds of bats? Help would be appreciated.

Kevin Graham
Akron,Ohio
1999

hi my name is jeff and I am doing a science project on medal bats or aluminum bats to wooden to find out with bat hit farther? If someone could help me I would appreciate it thanks

Jeff smith
- Massachusetts
1999

I am also doing a project for school involving wood vs. metal bats. I really need to find some sites that will explain the development of metal bats. History of...how they work..who developed them and who's doing the latest research.

P.C. Kidwill
Arlington,Texas
1999

I am college student at Rockhurst University, and am in my senior seminar math class and we must construct a model of something that we are interested in. I am trying to produce a model to predict how much faster the ball travels back by the pitcher off of an aluminum bat rather than a wooden bat. Any information that you have would be greatly appreciated on any averages such bat speed, pitch speed, spring off of wooden rather than aluminum bats, or anything like this. Thank you for reading my e-mail and I hope to get any information that you would think might help me.

Scott Siegel
- Kansas City, Missouri
2000

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I am doing a chemistry paper and was interested to see if any one knows what he chemical formulas are for some of the aluminum alloy bats that are on the market today. thanks a lot for your help.

ryan mcg -
- Wayland, Massachusetts
2000

I was wondering if you could tell me where to find more info on metal versus aluminum bats and where to find information regarding the amount of injuries that result by using aluminum bats? thanks.

Kerry Connor
- Athens, Georgia
2000

I am also doing a report on wood vs. metal bats, any info on this subject(especially injuries and how fast a ball comes off them) would be very helpful. Thanks.

Jake Blaskowski
- Cumberland, Wisconsin
2000

I'm doing a project too, it's on scandium though. that's the thing some base ball bats are made of.

Gladlock Valerie Hamoes
- Murfreesboro Tennessee
2000

I'm doing a project on scandium to see why Easton put it into the bats. any help?

Nick DiNinno
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2001

Ed. note: Letter 5797 is also from a student doing research on this topic. However, that "student" worked on it for 4 years as a Ph.D. project

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FYI, Many studies going on about the use of aluminum bats in High school and youth baseball. Sites you may want to look at:

http://www.baumbat.com/page5.htm

and

http://www.pitching.com

Good luck with all of your efforts.

Jeff Bowler
- San Jose, California
2001

Dear kid who said aluminum bats should be banned. You need to think before you write. Getting hit in the eye is just part of baseball. If the kid that hit you was using a wooden bat it would have done the same thing. If you can't take it then maybe you should forget about baseball. I like wooden bats better too but I'm not whining.

Don Baylor
- Chicago, Illinois
2001

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Maybe you're not whining because your eye socket hasn't been shattered yet, Don? If Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth had used aluminum bats, you might have a valid complaint about people trying to change the game on you. But aluminum bats are a relatively recent idea which many people think is a bad idea, and they have a right to feel that way.

Ted Mooney, P.E.
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey
2001