Vinten's Fibertec tripod for professional quality video cameras contains rack strips made with Vectra® liquid crystal polymer that enhance stability.*

Insider News - February 4, 2005 - Jobwerx News - The Fibertec tripod from Vinten Broadcast Ltd. is a stable platform for professional-quality video cameras. Each leg contains rack strips from Ticona made with Vectra® liquid crystal polymer that enhance stability.

The Fibertec tripod, a lightweight tripod developed by Vinten Broadcast Ltd. for professional-quality video cameras, uses rack strips made of Vectra® liquid crystal polymer (LCP) in each leg to help form a stable platform. The LCP, which is made by Ticona, the technical polymers business of Celanese Corporation, gives the two-part strips a high degree of stiffness and dimensional stability.

Vinten Broadcast chose Vectra LCP for these long and complex components over a number of other polymers, including polyarylate and polyetheretherketone. The LCP was the only resin evaluated that had sufficient flowability to mold the rack strips at a reasonable injection pressure. The other materials called for pressures that were close to or above the upper limit of the processing window for normal injection molding.

“With conventional tripod designs, there is a trade off between rigidity and weight, which sometimes has an impact on robustness and reliability,” says Richard Lindsay, Engineering Director at Vinten Broadcast. “We wanted to increase leg rigidity in our Fibertec tripod substantially without an increase in weight. The use of Vectra LCP for the rack strips helped us make a tripod that tests have shown to have 72 percent more torsional rigidity than that of the unit’s nearest competitor.”

Vectra® liquid crystal polymer was chosen for the rack strips placed in each leg because it offers high stiffness and dimensional stability and the flowability needed to mold this long part.*

The rack strips provide a positive positional lock and, because the tripod is used in climates throughout the world, must retain their rigidity from -40° to +60°C. Their coefficient of linear thermal expansion must be similar to that of the tripod’s carbon fiber parts so the leg elements slide smoothly under all conditions. The strips also need high dimensional accuracy to ensure reliable operation and balanced friction properties.

In processing, the LCP had to flow easily to fill each 20-in (510-mm)-long rack strip having teeth with wall sections as thin as 0.08 in. (2 mm). The strips have an overall cross section of 0.19 by 0.23 in. (5 by 6 mm).

“We needed a material with a very high elastic modulus,” says Lindsay. “Vectra LCP met this and all other requirements of the specification.” The Vectra LCP grade chosen provided the needed balance of surface hardness, frictional properties, and tensile and compressive strength.

In molding the 20-in. (510-mm) long rack strips, Vectra® liquid crystal polymer reliably fills teeth having wall sections as thin as 0.08 in. (2 mm).*

In developing the Fibertec tripod, Vinten Broadcast re-evaluated the fundamentals of tripod design to create a rigid, working platform that offers stability for high levels of drag and long lenses, particularly in windy conditions, and that has greatly reduced backlash. Its strength and light weight comes from its channel leg sections that out-perform traditional twin-tube designs.

For more information on the Fibertec contact: Richard Lindsay, Vinten Broadcast Limited, Western Way, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3TB, Suffolk, IP33 3TB, England. Tel: +44 (0) 128-475-2121,

For information on Vectra liquid crystal polymer and its applications, contact: Ticona, 8040 Dixie Highway, Florence, KY 41042, USA. Phone: 1-800-833-4882.

In Europe: Ticona GmbH, Professor-Staudinger-Straße, D-65451 Kelsterbach, Germany. Phone: +49-(0)180-584-2662 (DE) or +49-(0)693-051-6299 (EU).

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* Photos courtersy of Ticona Technical Polymers

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