About our materials…
As you read through this dealer guide, you’ll notice a couple of tech terms that we continually refer to when rating our rods and the different graphite materials.... modulus and tensile- strength. “Modulus” is the rating used to describe the stiffness-to-weight ratio of a fiber and “Tensile-strength” is the maximum load to failure of the fiber. The higher the modulus, the stiffer the fiber and that translates to increased sensitivity for the angler. The higher the tensile-strength of the fiber, the stronger it is. This does not mean that the rod blanks are stiffer... actions are designed around the material. Initially, there were graphite materials available with higher modulus-ratings, but as the modulus increased, the tensile-strength decreased, making them brittle and not useable in fishing rod applications. The industry settled on what we now refer to as “standard graphite” . It was considered a low-modulus material. IM6 was the first material to break the mold. It had a higher (intermediate) modulus AND a much higher tensile-strength than regular graphite. It allowed us to create a rod of equal strength, power and flex using as much as 20% less material, making it noticeably lighter. With the advent of IMX® and GLX® and the inherent increases in modulus and tensile-strength, we were able to make rods that are unbelievably lighter and more sensitive than those initial graphite versions. NRX®, with it’s nano-silica resin system, allows us to use the highest modulus graphite we’ve ever used. The real benefit is a much stronger blank that is noticeably lighter than our GLX®... on average, 15% lighter and 20% stronger for a comparable model. For the record... all rod blanks rods use resin. It’s the “glue” that bonds the fibers. It’s the hard surface of the blank that you touch and feel, encasing the graphite fibers inside. The secret to the nano-silica particles is that they are so minute they infiltrate all gaps in the laminate providing much more surface area for the resin (glue) to adhere to, increasing it’s overall strength dramatically. What this means to the angler is a rod that is extremely light, extremely sensitive and extremely strong. It’s truly a revelation in the world of graphite fishing rods, no matter what type of fishing you may choose.
NRX®
An extremely high modulus material (the highest we’ve ever used) with an extremely high tensile-strength, thanks to a nano-silica resin system, equates to the lightest, most sensitive graphite rods we’ve ever made. Some models are as much as 20% lighter and as much as 25% stronger than a comparable model in GLX. Such a dramatic reduction in blank weight, along with the stiffer, more dynamic fibers in NRX, increases sensitivity to the point of ridiculous. It also make a rod that is insanely light and recovers dramatically faster than any other rod we or anybody else has ever made. These stiffer fibers with the associated weight reduction in the blank reduces line slap which will improve accuracy and distance.
GLX®
Up until we introduced NRX, GLX was the highest performance graphite system we ever used. Its high modulus and high tensile-strength allowed us to use as much as 15% less material than a comparable IMX rod. It doesn’t take a mathematician to figure out we’re getting a lot lighter here. And... because the GLX fibers were even stiffer than IMX, we all enjoyed the sensitivity and the reduction in over all rod weight. The material has a higher modulus then IMX and the rods are noticeably lighter and more sensitive than IMX, GL3, our fiber-blends and GL2. GLX has been the cornerstone for our product line for almost 20 years.
IMX®
This was the first truly high modulus fishing rod material we developed. In the industrial sense of graphite it was still an intermediate modulus material, but for us it was noticeably higher than anything the industry had ever seen and brought with it many benefits. We introduced IMX in 1987 and it put G.Loomis on the map as the leader in high performance graphite blank technology. It featured a uniquely high tensile-strength that allowed us to make rods as much as 15% lighter than a comparable GL3 model, taking graphite blank technology to a higher level of performance.
Fiber-blends
In an effort to improve our intermediate performance rods we took our knowledge of graphite materials and developed strategic graphite blends. By blending materials, we gain a major reduction in blank weight while improving durability by taking advantage of each materials performance features. For example, we are able to reduce weight and increase sensitivity by using a core wrap of IMX material from tip-to-butt on a blank and then adding GL3 material in the lower half of the blank, increasing the strength and durability. We call it “fiber-blend” technology. There are myriad combinations using this method. We can affect strength, weight, durability and sensitivity just by using the right combinations of materials. It’s our way of building a “better mouse trap!”
GL 3 ®
GL 2 ®
We originally used IM6 as a major improvement in graphite rod technology back in 1985. Its intermediate modulus allowed us to reduce the amount of material used in a comparable rod model in regular graphite by as much as 20%. It was the first graphite material that actually increased both the modulus and the tensile strength. Regular graphite had a modulus of 33 million PSI and a tensile-strength of around 450,000 PSI. IM6 has a modulus of 38 million PSI and a tensile strength of 600,000 PSI... thus the name, Intermediate Modulus - 600,000 PSI strain-rate. That’s where the acronym, IM6 came from. After a few years of testing and development, we added a higher tensile-strength version with a high impact resin system, improving it substantially and changed the name to GL3.
Rods in this series were originally made with “standard” graphite. We didn’t call them GL2 back then. With our unique manufacturing process we were able to make a rod that was very strong and very sensitive. As we learned more about the relationship between modulus and tensile- strength, we were able to develop a new material with an even higher tensile-strength which made it stronger so we could reduce, slightly, the amount of material used to improve the overall feel of the series - light, sensitive and tough so we changed the name to GL2 because it was unique and it was a lot better than “regular graphite.”