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Ok, im working on my ski desing project, and I need some help from the colective database of all you maggots. I need info on what you think are the most significant advances in ski desing, and there impact on the sport. Also any info on the itroduction of fiberglass, foam cores, honeycomb cores, etc would be really really cool. Basically I need to write a hisotry of the technology of ski desing.
I think some one told me skis used to be straight?
"There seems little room for argument in the assertion that the cable binding with its diagonal downpull was the greatest forward step in ski equipment in this century." The author writes that, for the moment, ski equipment has become fairly well standardized. An exception is ski design. Laminated skis have proven their strength and serviceability and are becoming popular, but one-piece hickory skis are still the favorite. The flat-mounted Lettner edge out-sells all other types put together. The Saf-Ski release binding has recently been introduced, but most skiers still use toe-irons. The Superdiagonal is a wide rubber band passed around the ankle and used like the old Amstutz spring to keep the heel even more in contact with the ski. Steel ski poles are becoming more available, although tonkin poles remain the standard. Adjustable, telescoping poles have also appeared, but the author writes, "we like to gelandesprung and we're not taking any chances of one shrinking in mid-air!" He also discusses ski boots and fabrics.
I don't think you can argue that the Spatula has been the most innovative ski design of the last 100 years....
....didn't you bring home every back issue of powder you could get ahold of??? err......DT, you did not hear that </jedi mind trick>
you have some major history right there, no?
Yo Pat, wana write a portion of my paper????? Or at least write some qoutes i can use?Quote:
Originally Posted by splat
Yeah i did that, but i havent had time to read them all yet..... So if people know specific issues i should check out id be stoked.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynx
Blurred, The spatual is a very radicle design, but to it revloutionanising the ski inudtry the way shaped skis or fat skis have, has yet to be seen, Im looking more for things that actualy changed / impacted the sport vs just where off the wall.
Speaking of wich merving MFG. AKA GNUE Libtech, is coming out with a board with serated edges.
http://www.tetongravity.com/usergall...rosetta-lg.jpgQuote:
Originally Posted by mtbakerskier
Ok, im working on my ski designing project, and I need some help from the collective database of all you maggots. I need info on what you think are the most significant advances in ski designing, and there impact on the sport. Also any info on the introduction of fiberglass, foam cores, honeycomb cores, etc would be really really cool. Basically I need to write a history of the technology of ski designing.
yeah, whats up with that board, it suppose to cut through shit better? i saw it somewhere. weirdness.
as for design history:
i will go with shaped skis for a hundred, alex.
i'm sure you've already got that though
edit: beaver, are those little skis in the upper right of that close up? who knew?
No, but google has a ton of info you can plagiarize...........such as-Quote:
Originally Posted by mtbakerskier
Ski Manufacturing Case History
One of the newest advances in the ski industry is an all-terrain ski produced from a one-piece, stainless-steel cap design. Offering a combination of excellent edge holding and easy turning, the revolutionary composite ski performs on hard-packed snow and ice as well as powdered snow. The unique metal-cap/fiberglass/wood/rubber construction of the ski is also designed to yield an ideal balance of strength and flexibility.
The new composite ski is fabricated with processes similar to those used to manufacture conventional fiberglass/wood skis. The various laminate layers are coated with an epoxy adhesive, assembled, placed in a press and cured under heat and pressure. However, the technologically advanced design of the new metalwrap ski places new demands on the adhesive system.
The epoxy selected to produce the stainless-steel cap ski must be capable of bonding dissimilar materials with a greater variety of thermal expansion coefficients than are used in conventional skis. The adhesive also must be formulated with a low viscosity to accomodate automated mixing and application equipment used for production operations. In addition, the adhesive system must have a long working life to facilitate the laminating process as well as a relatively fast cure cycle to increase throughput.
To support ski performance, the adhesive must be capable of withstanding impact, shock and vibration under a broad range of temperatures. The epoxy must also retain its resilience to support the exceptionally long fatigue life of the steel ski.
Design
The new metal-cap ski design and the methods and materials used to make it work are the product of years of research by former U.S. Ski Team racer Bucky Kashiwa. An engineer and former K2 ski designer who is currently a scientist at Los Alamos National Laboratories, Kashiwa patented the metal-wrap ski in 1985. He then formed the Volant Ski Corp. in Boulder, Colo., to produce them. Supporting him in his effort was brother Hank Kashiwa, also a championship skier and current president of Volant. Today, four years after fabricating its first pair of production skis, Volant markets five ski models with varying degrees of flexibility for different ability levels. The skis are sold nationwide at specialty ski shops.
Manufacturing Operation
To prepare for assembling the laminate, workers precut strips of sintered polyethylene, phenolic filler, steel, rubber sheet, carbon sheet, wood, fiberglass and a lightweight fabric. These materials are brought to the bond area where they will be wet-out with an Araldite AW-136/HY-994 high-strength epoxy resin system supplied by Vantico, East Lansing, Michigan.
According to Ron Garrett, engineer at Volant, "With its 7500-cps mixed viscosity, the adhesive works well in Volant's automated dispensing equipment."
To set up the dispensing units, workers adjust the controls to handle the 100:40 parts by weight mix ratio of the AW-136/HY-994 epoxy resin and hardener. The mixed epoxy is dispensed into a holding tray that will uniformly coat the top of two rollers that apply a fixed amount of adhesive to the pre-cut laminate layers.
To begin the lay-up, the sintered polyethylene is coated and put down to form the running base of the ski. This initial layer is followed by successive laminate components (see picture below). As the materials are coated with adhesive, they are inspected to ensure complete coverage. When necessary, they are fed through the adhesive coated rollers a second time. The wet components are carefully draped over supports for ready accessibility to the worker constructing the laminate.
"The long, 75-min work life of the Vantico epoxy provides workers with more than enough time to coat laminate components and fabricate each pair of skis" Garrett said.
To complete each ski, a top ply of lightweight epoxy-impregnated fabric is put down just before the metal cap is added. Volant uses the cloth to eliminate the need to wet-out the roll-formed cap. To ensure good adhesion of the cloth layer to the stainless-steel cap, the metal is abraded and vapor-degreased before assembly.
Completed laminates are placed in a press. Workers then determine the temperature, heating and cooling times, and pressure under which the skis will cure. The full cycle takes approximately 15 mins; during the pressure-cure process, any remaining voids and excess resin are forced out of the laminate.
After the skis are removed from the press, excess epoxy is ground off the sides as part of the finishing process. The stainless-steel top of the ski is also polished.
Performance
"The Araldite epoxy forms a resilient bondline between laminate layers that produces skis with excellent resistance to shock," Garrett noted. The adhesive also exhibits good elongation properties to contribute to the flexibility of the skis. Finally, the adhesive system is designed to withstand temperatures from -40 F to 212 F to meet the broad range of environmental conditions to which skis are subjected.
Using the Vantico adhesive and its unique steel-capped laminate design, Volant has manufactured more than 20,000 pairs of high quality, high-performance skis since beginning production.
its like a google novelette
Yeah whats even more whack looking than that desing is watching them actualy build those boards. It takes a hell of a lot more work than the standard edge desings.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynx
Schweet I posted this like 3 min ago, and I allready got a shit load of info, but hte more the merrier
Hahah, that is the rosetta stone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynx
The Egyptians built the pyramids to ski down.
Lots of short bits and a ton of links if you dig through it.
http://forum.powdermag.com/forum/sho...=&fpart=1&vc=1
I would say,
Waxable bases
Metal Edges
Release-able Bindings
Plastic Boots
edit:
talked to the rep a bit on the new Gnu with the serrated edge, apparently they will incorporate it into the next's years line in most models. But
I still haven't got feedback from soemone who's ridden one. Cool concept, wonder if there will be some crossover. Mervin was rumored to be making a split board with it also.
has that design really been tested and proven? it seems like a person would get stuck or hooked up on things left and right.
and just to clarify, are you writing a history of just ski design, or ski design including advances like bindings and boots and such?
Quote:
Originally Posted by BlurredElevens
I do. take a look at where ski desgin was in 1904. Sober up. Get off summit. then realize that the spatula while a very innovative design, is not the best thing ever to happen to skis.
that is all.
duker
You gotta be kidding me dude. Reverse sidecut/reverse camber have NEVER been in skiing. Fat skis? Been around in heli-skiing. Short skis? Same fads going now done in the 70's, including twin tips.Quote:
Originally Posted by mtbakerskier
If you want something else, go on about bear-trap bindings being obsolete....or leather boots being replaced by plastic, or the novelty of Spademan bindings, but don't be confused, Spats are the most revolutionary design of skis in the last 100 years.
And to the hell with the norwegions inventing the ski 4500 years ago, the egyptons beat them to it, and they didnt even have snow. Wow, now thats a revolutionary devolpment in skiing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ski Beaver
Its a hieroglyphic TR, Grant.
Perhaps the first predecessor of the infamous maggot TR.
Now that's ski history, buddy!
assignment done, rewrite the history books.
Egypt use to be the Alps.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Duker
Being 25 minutes away from the colorado ski museum, I've been there multiple times. Skis were wooden then, didn't have edges.....yippeee!! Fuckin same as straight skis in pow, same design, nothing changed in ski design for hundreds of years....If anything, grooming machines and chairlifts are what have evolved in the industry GG.
No, and about half of the people actualy making htem are prety skepticle themseleve, but you cant say there not creative with there ideas.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lynx
As for ski history, Im concentrating just on the skis, not bindings etc, that would be an entire issue on its own.
so like. . . skiing came before writing. or did the chicken come before the egg?
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtbakerskier
so what kind of timeline do you have so far? maybe you should post that up and let the maggots fill in the blanks