Falco Tempo Booster offers a safer and VOC-free alternative to speed glue. As the VOC speed glue ban came into the effect in 2008, Berenger International has came up with great new alternative, which is completely VOC free.
The Booster is not actually a glue, but a sponge treatment liquid, which offer a speed glue effect for around 3 weeks. After this period another smaller application will reactive the booster and offer another 3 weeks, and so on.
The original Booster (WSL II) contained fat and was very oily, but this new version (WSL III) is hardly oily and is therefore much easier to stick on with glue.
The Falco Tempo Booster now come in a 250ml plastic bottle with a brush attached to the lid, making the application very easy.
Warning: This booster (and all other speed glues and alternatives) stretch the rubber, increasing the tension on the top-sheet. Some high tension rubbers or Tensors are not designed to be used with speed glue or alternatives as it put too much tension on the top-sheet. Some rubber are glued together better than others, so using speed glue or alternatives, there is always a risk of damage to the rubber.
(Note: Boosting rubbers is not legal for formal competition under ITTF rules)
Made in Belgium by Berenger, one of the leading manufacturers of table tennis glues.
Falco’s statement regarding ITTF regulation compliance of their boosters:
As stated by the ITTF, a racket covering should be used as it has been approved. The ITTF does not approve a racket covering, but rather the Top-sheet (the black or red rubber). Then manufacturers may choose a type of sponge that could hard or soft, thin or thick, boosted or not! Moreover, any player may change the sponge and use the sponge of his choice (this is very common in Asia). So Falco Boosting is 100% legitimate: this technique does not touch the approved rubber since it only boosts the sponge previously unglued.
The ITTF view:
Players cannot boost a sponge without an influence on the top sheet and so the current law is:
2.04.07 The racket covering shall be used without any physical, chemical or other treatment.
Note: The rules are only relevant where formal ITTF rules are applied, so for other competitions or social play, the booster are perfect legal.
Review by haggisv:
Through lots of experimenting I’ve come up with the following guide on how to best apply the booster:
Instructions:
1. Put the rubber with the sponge up onto a flat surface. If the rubber has a plastic protection sheet on the topsheet, remove this first. This allows the topsheet to stretch with the sponge as it expands, reducing the strain on the topsheet and the bond to the sponge.
2. Apply a layer of Falco Tempo Booster onto the sponge covering the complete surface evenly. Try not to get any on the edges as this may leak onto the top-sheet.
3. Wait for it to soak in and for the sponge surface to feel dry. The picture (left) shows a rubber about 2 hours after application of the booster. As the sponge has expanded by a huge amount already (but the topsheet has not) you can see the huge ‘dome’, this is normal.
4. At this point you may add another layer for greater effect, and repeat for a 3rd layer for even greater effect. As the doming becomes greater, you may have to push down the rubber sheet to stop it from ‘scrolling up’, as this may get some of the liquid onto the top-sheet.
WARNING: The ‘doming’ effect as the sponge is expanding puts strain on the top-sheet and the bond between the top-sheet and sponge. There is a limit on how much strain a rubber can handle, depending on the type and quality of the rubber. The majority of quality rubbers should be able to handle 2-3 layers, but more is not recommended.
5. After the final layer, leave the rubber to dry until the dome starts coming down. Pictured (below) is the dome after 2 layers.
It is highly recommended to leave the rubber until the dome is well down, as it may be very hard to get it to stick to the blade if you don’t. I recommend leaving it for about 48h, ONLY the first time you use the booster. The next time can be done in 24h. Note that the effect of the dome coming down is not an indication of the effect wearing off, but merely the top-sheet stretching further, allowing the rubber to flatten out.
6. When the rubber is ready to be attached to the blade, check if there is any residue or dirt on the sponge (not likely), wipe it off with a tissue or dry cloth… It is recommended to use a water based glue to attach the rubber to the blade. Use a water based glue that is easy to remove, and remove it before the next application (after the effect wears off).
7. After gluing and clamping the rubber to the blade, it’s ready to use for play. The effect should last for about 3 weeks, and should be quite consistent during this period.
8. When the effect starts to wear off, remove the rubber from the blade. As is usually good practice with any speed gluing procedure, leave the rubber off the blade for at least 24h, to allow it to shrink a little since it’s been under high tension for such a long time.
9. Remove the layer of glue from the rubber. This allows better penetration of the Booster to the sponge. As there will still be significant booster present in the sponge, less booster is required to get the same effect (exactly how much less may take a little experimenting as this depends on the initial application, the duration it was used for and the rubber type).
Note: From further experiments, using half the amount of the initial boost is a good guide.
10. Repeat from step 3., remembering that less booster will be required to give the same effect for another 3 weeks.
Review:
I used the Falco Tempo booster on a Tulpe 007 Japanese sponge (40-43 deg), on a Galaxy ALL+ blade.
I followed the procedure above, applying 2 medium thick layers of the Booster. As you can see from the picture above, the final dome was huge and I did not want to add a 3rd layer! Obviously this will vary from rubber to rubbers with difference sponges and hardness’s.
After the 2 layers I left the rubber to dry for about 36hrs. By this time the dome was still quite large, but had started to come down a little. Next time I’ll most likely leave it a little longer again, making the gluing to the blade a lot easier.
Since I have a durometer (specifically for measuring sponge hardness), I measured the sponge hardness before and after the rubber treatment. Although the absolute readings are yet to be worked out, I would estimate the sponge hardness dropped by about 4 degrees! This is very impressive for a VOC free alternative!
I used the Falco Water Glue to attach the rubber to the blade
Well the results were not disappointing, the speed glue effect was massive! There was a huge increase in speed and spin, and the rubber felt significantly softer too. The sounds was not quite as loud as with some VOC glues I’ve used, but the effect and feel was virtually the same!
I compared the Falco Booster with the highly regarded Tibhar Clean Tuning Extra, on identical rubbers and identical blades. I used 5 layers of the Tibhar CTE and 2 layers of the booster.
The Booster won the battle this time with the Booster softening the sponge 1-2 degrees more, and with a little more speed and feel (as a guess 5% more speed). I let another regular speed glue player try the 2 bats, without telling him which is which, and he came to the same conclusion.
Of course this may be different on different rubbers, and more layers of Tibhar CTE would likely offer more effect. I also still have to test how long the effect lasts and how consistent they are, and how well the 2nd application works… However both products are the best I’ve seen so far and very impressive, and certainly genuine alternative to VOC speed glues.
After further experimentation I’ve found that this booster adds more speed than spin to Chinese type rubbers, whereas for the softer and more elastic Euro or Japanese style rubber, there is a large increase in both speed and spin. Since most of the spin from a Chinese style rubber is generated by the topsheet, this is not so much of an issue as they can still generate plenty of spin.
I’ve also found that this booster is a great way to give an old rubber that worn out a little boost, giving a lot more life back into it. Just put on a layer, let it soak in for at least 24h and then glue it onto the bat. works great even on old tensors or old sheets of Tenergy! You’ve got nothing to lose if it’s an old sheet anyway! This booster is relatively cheap and a good option for this, and the effect of making it more lively and seems to last well beyond the 3 week period!
Author: haggisv