andro ‘TP_Ligna’ series is a 2018 update of andro’s German-made blade line, ‘Ligna’ series. In 2018, andro renewed its long-used logo mark, and reorganized its blade range at the same time. andro divided its blades into three groups – ‘Supreme Line’, ‘High Line’ and ‘Basic Line’, and applied a unified graphic design to all products. ‘TP_Ligna’ series is one of the ‘Supreme Ling’ product families. The important characteristics of the blades in ‘TP_Ligna’ series are very refined appearance that brings out the feel of natural wood and the smooth handle shape. The naming system of old ‘Ligna’ series was refined to fit the new naming system. 2nd name after the series name indicates the construction and kind of fiber, and 3rd name indicates the speed sign under andro standard, for example OFF or ALL. 2nd name ‘CI’ means ‘carbon outer’, and ‘CO’ means ‘carbon inner’. All-wood blade in this series doesn’t have 2nd name. ‘TP_Ligna CO OFF’ means that this blade has carbon fiber directly under the top layer (= outer construction) and its speed level is OFF class.

‘TP_Ligna CO OFF’ is the top model in andro ‘TP_Ligna’ series. (But, it isn’t the fastest one in the series.) It is difficult to find similar blade in the market because its construction (outer carbon with spruce top layer) is very unique. Regarding design, what is first noticeable is the handle that is made of pure wood instead of dyed fineline wood. And then we can notice that the handle is very smooth and there isn’t angle between the thumbrest and body. andro is explaining this shape as ‘ergonomic 3D shape’.

The top layer and the middle layer are Spruce, and the center layer is Kiri. Carbon fiber is inserted directly under the top layer. Overall thickness is around 6.3mm.

The size of the head actually measured is around 156mm x 151mm. The overall shape of head is somewhat different from the general shapes those we can see from other blades.

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

Above picture shows the shape of FL (= flared) handle. The width is around 26mm (at top) ~ 27.5mm (at bulge) ~ 25.5mm (at narrowest point) ~ 33mm (at the end), and the height (thickness) is around 22.5mm (at thumb) ~ 28mm (at the end). Because the handle is very smooth and there isn’t noticeable angle between the thumb surface and main body surface of handle, the thickness at thumb is a rough value.

The size of ST handle is around 28mm (width) x 22.5mm (height). This ST handle is also very smooth, and there isn’t clear border between thumbrest and the main body surface of handle.

On the bottom center of the foreside of head, the common graphic which is applied for all andro blades released in 2018 is printed. It includes big ‘a’ logo, the name of product (= ‘TP_Ligna CO OFF’), the name of group (= ‘Supreme Line’), the construction of plywood and the origin.

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

At foreside of handle squared logo panel is applied. This logo panel is the common one that is applied to most of andro blades.

At the end of handle, aluminum panel including the name of product is applied.

‘TP_Ligna CO OFF’ is a high class fiber blade that is made in Germany. Because of the natural wood that is used for handle, it looks like a hand-made blade like the blades in ‘Wanokiwami’ series which is another high class blade family made in Japan. (But, differently from ‘Wanokiwami’ series that doesn’t consist of fiber blade, ‘TP_Ligna’ series includes fiber blades such as ‘TP_Ligna CO OFF’.) The Spruce that is used as top layer of ‘TP_Ligna CO OFF’ is more  similar to Hinoki when compared with other wood materials, but it provides quite different characteristics from Hinoki. The harmony between Spruce top layer and artificial material which is placed directly under the top layer makes good harmony to provide superb hitting feeling. The players may feel the  smooth handle shape strange. But, players may spend less time than expected to be accustomed with this shape because the handle shape itself isn’t that unique except for the smoothness. Because its performance is also quite well-balanced, ‘TP_Ligna CO OFF’ can be recommended for the players who lay emphasis on the stability of continuous offensive play.

Following are the performance indices of andro TP_Ligna CO OFF (avg.weight = 87.0) :

– Ep = 1.64

– Ec = 1.55 (Ec/Ep = 0.94)

– Vp = 1.19

– Vl = 1.20 (Vl/Vp = 1.01)

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

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