‘Synteliac’ series is the new flagship blade family in andro range that consists of various kinds of fiber blades. The special materials adopted by ‘Synteliac series’ are ‘Zyreema Carbon’ and ‘Voltema Carbon’ those are different from the artificial fibers for existing fiber blades of andro. Current naming system of Andro blades is to add additional name after the main name depending on the type of construction and the kind of special material, followed by additional symbol indicating playing strategy or speed of blade. Depending on that system, four models of ‘Synteliac’ series are named as ‘Synteliac ZCO OFF/S’, ‘Synteliac ZCI OFF’, ‘Synteliac VCO OFF’ and ‘Synteliac VCI OFF’. High elasticity is one important advantage of ‘Synteliac’ series according to Andro. Andro promotes ‘SPEED WINS’ as the motto of the ‘Synteliac’ series.

‘Synteliac VCO OFF’ is the outer-type model whose artificial fiber is ‘Voltema Carbon’. ‘VCO’ is the abbreviate of ‘Voltema Carbon Outer’. ‘Voltema’ is a kind of liquid crystal fiber, differently speaking Arylate fiber. (The reason why many TT makers including andro are calling ‘Arylate fiber’ in different names is to avoid trademark dispute. But, it will be all right that we think of ‘Voltema Carbon’ as ‘ALC’. So ‘Synteliac VCI OFF’ is a kind of inner-ALC blade.) The concept of ‘Synteliac VCO OFF’ is to maximize the elasticity of the blade by placing the artificial material directly under the top layer.

‘Synteliac VCO OFF’ is one of the new flagship blades of andro. In particular, it is an important blade in andro blade range which can be provided to the players who have used Butterfly ‘Viscaria’, ‘Zhang Jike ALC’ ‘Fan Zhendong ALC’ and ‘Timo Boll ALC’. (Among the blades listed here, only ‘Timo Bol ALC’ has different handle shapes. The handle shapes of the other blades are almost identical.)

Above is the construction of ‘Synteliac VCO OFF’. Voltema Carbon (= ALC) is inserted directly under the top layer. The top layer is Koto, the middle layer is Ayous, and the center layer is Kiri. Overall thickness is around 5.8mm.

The size of the head is around 157mm x 150mm which can be called as the standard size of modern offensive blades. The head size of two outer-type models (ZCO and VCO) is 157mm x 150mm while that of two inner-type models (ZCI and VCI) is 158mm x 152mm. The average weight of samples of ‘Synteliac VCO OFF’ is 82.8g.

Left is FL (flared) handle version, and right is ST (straight) handle version.

Above picture shows the shape of FL (= flared) handle. It is a FL handle of semi-wide type similar to that of ‘Viscaria’. The width is around 25mm (at top) ~ 28mm (at bulge) ~ 26mm (at narrowest point) ~ 34mm (at the end), and the height (thickness) is around 22.5mm (at thumb) ~ 24.5mm (at the end). This semi-wide handle is applied only for outer-type models in the series (= ZCO and VCO), and different shape is applied for inner-type models (= ZCI and VCI).

The size of ST handle is around 28mm (width) x 23mm (height). This ST handle is common for all four models in ‘Synteliac’ series.

New ‘a’ logo of andro and the name of product is printed on the foreside of blade head. Differently from the other andro blades, the name of group (= ‘High Line’) and the construction of plywood are not printed on the head.

There isn’t any printing or lens at the backside of the blade.

At foreside of handle, there are two Aluminum panels. At the position close to thumb small rounded plate with ‘a’ logo is applied. And, below it long Aluminum panel with ‘Synteliac’ logo is applied.

Transparent plastic lens is applied at the end of handle. ‘VCO’ and ‘OFF’ are shown in this plastic lens.

‘Synteliac VCO OFF’ is a typical outer-ALC blade with Koto top layer, and it can be directly compared with Butterfly ‘Viscaria’ or ‘Fan Zhendong ALC’. It provides higher power and speed than inner-ALC blade with Limba top layers such as ‘Synteliac VCI OFF’ or Butterfly ‘InnerForce Layer ALC’. But, because its elasticity isn’t excessive, it can be one of standard weapons of topspin players of middle ~ high level.

Following are the performance indices of andro Synteliac VCO OFF (avg.weight = 82.8) :

– Ep = 1.93

– Ec = 1.88 (Ec/Ep = 0.97)

– Vp = 1.34

– Vl = 1.48 (Vl/Vp = 1.10)

Please note that above are average values and can be updated by further measurement.

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