Bird2 design concept

Bird2 may be seen as just ‘another nylon’ shuttle so I explain below some of the conceptual thoughts that went into the design of what is a more radical design than might be at first perceived.

Most of the design work done over the last few decades has gone into trying to make a synthetic feather to replace the16 individual feathers that make up the traditional shuttlecock. A close look at a feather reveals the amazing intricacies of the ‘design’ which have evolved over 150 million years. The stems are hollow and uniquely strong and the feathery bits act as a complete baffle to air but weigh virtually nothing. The chances of replicating the performance of a feather to any degree at a reasonable manufacturing cost are zero.

If one did manage then one still has to stick 16 individual ‘feathers’ into a piece of tree bark, bind them altogether somehow and stop them from moving and breaking readily. A moulded one piece flight gives the integrity and resilience to make a durable shuttlecock, but the moulding process is very limiting when trying to make an effective baffle or a rigid structure. After hundreds of different ideas to prevent the collapse of the body of the skirt, the current 2 piece design was conceived.

Splitting the form into 2 mouldings retains the concentric integrity and shortens the length of flow path to the vital lightweight section of the flight. This speeds up the moulding cycle and gives a more durable moulding. The undercut feature gives three times the rigidity as compared with standard nylon shuttles and cannot be formed in a one piece mould tool. It is not formed in the conventional way and gives perfect shape recovery; the processes involved cannot be seen in the finished design.

In the next blog I will go into the design in more detail and then explain some of the tests and trialing procedures we developed to prove the design.

Gordon Willis,  Bird Design