Fiber-reinforced composite tubular shafts and manufacture thereof

A golf club comprising:

• an elongate tubular shaft comprised of a carbon fiber-reinforced resin matrix composite material, wherein the elongate tubular shaft has a length D in a longitudinal shaft direction L and the shaft is multilaminar and includes first and second wound preform tapes, each of which first and second preform tapes is helically wrapped around the longitudinal shaft direction L to form the elongate tubular shaft,
• wherein each first and second preform tape has, in an unwrapped state, a longitudinal tape axis and comprises a plurality of oriented fibrous layers, wherein at least one of the oriented fibrous layers in each of the first and second preform tapes comprises oriented structural carbon fibers disposed at a fiber angle of 45 to 85 degrees to the respective longitudinal tape axis,
• each preform tape being wrapped at a selected wrap angle α of from 5 to 45 degrees to a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal shaft direction L, wherein the first and second preform tapes are helically wrapped around the longitudinal shaft direction L about opposite rotational helical wrapping directions at the selected wrap angle in the range of +5 to +45 and −5 to −45 respectively to a plane perpendicular to the longitudinal shaft direction L, such that the oriented structural carbon fibers, disposed at the fiber angle of from 45 to 85 degrees to the respective longitudinal tape axis, of the wrapped first and second preform tapes are substantially aligned along the longitudinal shaft direction L so as to be oriented within +/−10° of the longitudinal shaft direction L, and
• the oriented structural carbon fibers of the wrapped first and second preform tapes have a selected fiber length d, along the longitudinal shaft direction L, of from 20 to 100 mm thereby to form discontinuous structural carbon fibers serially oriented along the longitudinal shaft direction L of the elongate tubular shaft.