Awkward state of boosting

[NextLevel]

Perhaps it's unfair. Although it makes no difference whether the rubber is boosted by the factory or by you, the final product of manual boosting is not readily available to the general populace. But even so, players should already use the best rubber available to them, boosted or not. Since boosting softens the sponge and add catapult, you can just buy the degree of hardness and catapult you want in a rubber without doing any witchcraft.

It's not that simple, don't assume pros are stupid. Boosting doesn't "soften" the sponge, it increases the compressibility of a sponge. An already compressible sponge might not have the advantages of being hard.

 

[NextLevel]

I don't know. At least in Europe it's still frowned im the lower league to play with boosted rubbers. I specially asked some club mates because I'm also new to this topic and unsure.

But yeah, another reason to just legalize boosting because it doesn't make sense why factory boosted being legal and personal boosting not.

Nevertheless, even if it's unfair and doesn't make sense, it's the official ruling. So for official play, we can't just disregard the rules? I mean for example toss high is stated as 15 cm or 6". I can't just toss lower, just because I don't like the rule?

Then the rule needs either to be changed or to be enforced the same. Otherwise it's becoming unfair?

The only way they can tell you boost is you or they bought the original rubber and compared it to the one on your blade, assuming that the your rubber passes the tests around thickness limits. All that is enforced are the thickness limits.

 

[igorponger]

THE END OF OILY BOOSTERS.
INNOVATIVE "DRY BOOSTING" IS TO COME INSTEAD.

Yes, the statements given beneath is a matter of fact, hard to deny.
--Players can't enjoy impunity any longer.
-- Players can't take much liberty in the use of boosters as they did before now.
"La festa e' finita." (Italian famous catch-saying) ⏯

ITTF is now looking to engage a reputable Asian manufactory for producing a handy digital thickness gauge in large output, at affordable price.
Again, an umpire-on-duty is now empowered to separate rubber from blade so as to check up thickness limits on the rubber sheet. Oily applications on sponge, even if sporadic, would get sponge to swell dramatically. No way could you hide the guilty racket behind your back in presence of the racket inspector in the playing venue.
We do expect to deploy a proper racket control on regular basis for all club's and local competitions worldwide as soon as we get the digital instruments on market in mass supply.
_________________
FAIR PLAY FIRST

 

[lodro]

THE END OF OILY BOOSTERS.
INNOVATIVE "DRY BOOSTING" IS TO COME INSTEAD.

Yes, the statements given beneath is a matter of fact, hard to deny.
--Players can't enjoy impunity any longer.
-- Players can't take much liberty in the use of boosters as they did before now.
"La festa e' finita." (Italian famous catch-saying) ⏯

ITTF is now looking to engage a reputable Asian manufactory for producing a handy digital thickness gauge in large output, at affordable price.
Again, an umpire-on-duty is now empowered to separate rubber from blade so as to check up thickness limits on the rubber sheet. Oily applications on sponge, even if sporadic, would get sponge to swell dramatically. No way could you hide the guilty racket behind your back in presence of the racket inspector in the playing venue.
We do expect to deploy a proper racket control on regular basis for all club's and local competitions worldwide as soon as we get the digital instruments on market in mass supply.
_________________
FAIR PLAY FIRST

Oh Igor, it is why I buy my rubber 1.7mm or 1.9mm sponge thickness. Once boosted it might measure 2.1 or even 2.3mm perfectly legal.

 

[JJ Ng]

I have no problem with boosting.

by the way I played in the speed glue era with 38mm ball. That was really bad back then because the playing hall would smell like volatile glue!

Boosting with VOC-free booster is so much easier and safer. The boosting effects last for a while.

 

[Lawsy]

It's been a long time since I worked in an industry that dealt with engineering rubbers and plastics, and I make no claim to any knowledge specific to the manufacture of TT rubbers. Therefore, the below includes a few slightly informed assumptions that may or may not be relevant to TT rubber manufacturing...
---------
There are several additives used for both natural rubber and synthetic (urethane) rubber production (elastomers), that require an oily release agent to be applied to the rollers or kneaders during the mixing/kneading process. The same is often required when moulding or stamping these materials into their final form, or even while they are being adhered to another material (i.e., the top sheet in our case), as these materials have a propensity to stick to whatever they touch during vulcanisation.

If a more exotic oil or "release agent" can be substituted into this process in order to achieve more desirable mechanical properties, then of course these OEMs will do so—that is, assuming it is economical for a given product.

However, I think there's another way of looking at it:

• What if a given sponge composition was originally never intended to be used without the final reaction with a specific solution (which could very well have included the VOC-based glue used in decades past)?

You can take this even further:

• What if rubbers marketed as "factory-tuned", like so many Hurricane variants, are actually just less de-tuned versions of the originally intended design (which was for high-level competition use)?

Just like when individuals boost their rubbers, varying the amount of reactant, and the exposure time, results in a given a portion of the desired mechanical properties manifesting in the rubber. Thus, a "product range" is born, while using the exact same raw material...

This isn't that far fetched, since the material cost per sheet of the real "National" H3 sponge, is likely a few dollars at most. The time invested waiting for that sponge to react with their chosen solution, in order to achieve the design specification, is almost assuredly several times more costly. What's probably even more expensive is the lost opportunity cost this involves as it requires dedicating floor space (and other specialty resources) to the production of a tiny quantity of exclusive rubbers—floor space that could have been used to produce 10 times the quantity of the cheaper version (or more).

Assuming any of the above resembles reality, then it begs the question: what really is "factory tuned" or "factory boosted", if it was merely an explicit aspect of the manufacturing process?

It's called marketing.

And then what if it really is just a product that hasn't been "de-tuned" as severely as the cheapest option?

That's called really good marketing.

Now you don't know what to think...

EDIT: Note that I've not given an opinion on boosting, one way or the other; I've merely added some industrial context to an otherwise interesting discussion.

 

[WingTT]

Aren't boosters merely plasticizers for the sponge or various liquids people think act like one? If folks want to go through the trouble of boosting let them be. At this point it's some sort of cargo cult voodoo practice just because folks found a way to improve the performance of cheap Chinese rubbers with dead sponges. There are plenty of rubbers both cheap and not so that IMO do not require boosting to use. It is in fact possible to destroy the desirable properties of a sponge by boosting. It's not some performance advantage overall to boost, it just part of some players fetishistic ritual/hobby. I'm pretty sure it does not affect my own competitiveness as I'm very happy with my unboosted setup and if I lost it's not because the opponent boosted.