During its presentation at the 2021 ITTF Annual General Meeting videoconferences series, the ITTF Equipment Office presented T LAB, its newly-opened laboratory entirely dedicated to table tennis.

“The T stands for testing, technology and table tennis,” explains Claudia Herweg, Head of the ITTF Equipment Office.

Herweg led proceedings supported by the other members of the ITTF Equipment Office, Emese Lovaine Barsai and Carsten Schlotterhose. Dr. Alaa Meshref, Executive Committee member responsible for Equipment, was also in attendance.

“Behind T LAB is the wish to increase our knowledge about equipment and about equipment’s influence on the game,” said Herweg. “We need to have the products in hand, in house, to work on them every day and not only dispatch them to external labs. This is why we opened our own ITTF lab. From my viewpoint, there are only advantages: better knowledge, shorter delivery time, better profit and better sustainability.”

Since T LAB opened, the Equipment Office has been focusing on racket coverings, measuring dimensions, colors, gloss, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC), and thickness

During this pandemic year, the team was able to train itself on the new technologies and machinery of T LAB. Moreover, technical leaflets have been revamped and redesigned into more modern manuals. Finally, the office managed to generate a stable income over the last three years.

The Equipment Office also provided the participants with an update on its work on rackets, balls, flooring, nets, and tables.

Watch the full presentation of the Equipment Office here

The Annual General Meeting of the International Table Tennis Federation will be held on 24 November 2021, on the occasion of the 2021 ITTF World Championship Finals in Houston, Texas. Prior to it, the ITTF Group is hosting a series of videoconferences from 18 October to 15 November, featuring presentations for the global Table Tennis community. Delegates registered officially for the 2021 Annual General Meeting will be receiving the invitations for each of the videoconferences. The schedule of the 2021 ITTF AGM Videoconferences series is available here.

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