Fuji’s stamped stainless steel and ceramic ring guide turns 40 this year. Developed in 1972, it was a paradigm shift for rod building. Ryuichi Omura, Fuji’s president and 8 time All-Japan casting champion and his son Rintaro, brought the guide to market in 1973 and transformed the labor intensive wire-brazed guide construction process into a high-speed metal stamping and shaping system.

With that said -- is the design perfection? I am curious to know if anyone has any thoughts as to what the next paradigm shift will be in guide design over the next 40 years. What do you think a guide will look like in 2052?

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[www.fujitackle.com]

It won't be made of metal and it won't contain a ceramic ring.

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I'm puzzled after 40 years, what with new technology, materials etc,, why they haven't come up with a non metal frame guide now? Does anyone remember the guides made by Ryobi? i don;t think they were a top quality guide, but they were made of carbon fibre if i remember correctly? can't they come up with a superior guide made from this substance or something stronger other than metal, we could have lighter guides and maybe less guide cracking because the feet would flex more?

Jersey, Channel Islands. (U.K.)

It's been done and is in the works with improvements. Expect it to happen before much longer.

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Wonder if the new guides show before "virtual" fishing becomes the norm and rods and reels are obsolete?

Elites two weeks ago at Douglas admitted that tournament fishing has changed - used electronic eyes to locate fish - did not waste the time at their spots to cast - did not make a cast until the were looking down their throats!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/19/2012 07:48PM by Bill Stevens.

Thanks Tom. Great news!

Jersey, Channel Islands. (U.K.)

Hey Bill - electronic ones found the fish at Douglas... Kigan ones held the line that put the right ones in the boat.


Alex
www.hydrafishing.com

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Carbon fiber frames would be the next step in my opinion, or something similar to Daiwas Zion or Shimanos CI4 material used in their reels. It's the dawn of composties.

Some sort of nylon composite is more than likely the future of guide frame design and material.

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In 40 years there will be no guides at all. The rod will magically attract the line. It will be completely frictionless and smooth along the entire bend of the rod. The rod will also be an ounce or two, variable action, length, grips, color and it will play music and clean and cook the fish for you too.

You heard it hear first!

Like always it comes down to capital investment and institutional inertia. Back then someone who had a factory set up to braze wire into guides didn’t want to invest a fortune on progressive stamping machines. Today someone who has a huge investment in metal stamping machines doesn’t want to spend another fortune in injection molding machines. So it will come down to who has the capitol to make it work and the vision to take the chance. It will open up some interesting design opportunities and may result in guides that don’t look at all like we have now which have been optimized to be the best they can be with the limitations of the stamping process, it will be like back then when a stamped guide looked so weird compared to the brazed wire guides people were used to. An injection molded part can have much more complex engineering applied to vary things like cross sections and radius to design the strength where you need it and remove weight where you don’t. Those design techniques could be available today in metal frames using processes like MIM (metal injection molding) or ALM (additive layer manufacturing) but those processes are not even close to cost competitive with progressive die stamping.

Daiwa's AGS (air guide system), uses carbon fiber and ceramic. Very lightweight. However, there is still some steel and a ceramic ring which can still be damaged.

Thanks all for including your thoughts. Just checked out the AGS system videos and they look interesting:
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