Hello Gear Talk!
I've made this thread to bring forward an idea and concept that I've had on the mind for a very long time now. Hoping that I can get some scrutiny and feedback on it from pretty much anyone who is reading this; it would be appreciated. The idea is basically aimed at improving ski edge design to increase the edges durability as a component inside of a ski. But before we dive too deep into that, lets take a look at ski edges as we know them today:
Stock photo from the Ski Lab:
Drew this up in AutoCAD to exact specs based on some edge material I had laying around:
Basically the zipper toothed design of ski edges relies on both a mechanical connection and bonded connection to hold it inside of the ski. The mechanical connection is created by the gaps between the teeth where epoxy flows in and more or less creates the other half to the zipper that traps the edge. Then the bonded connection is created by the edge teeth's surface area and the epoxy sticking to it. Both of these rely on the epoxy that surrounds them. Pretty straightforward, but that last part is critical.
Along with that most skis also have edge rubber or VDS to provide a shear layer so the edge can flex at a slightly different radius than the rest of the ski. This aids both the mechanical and bonded connections from breaking and delaminating, which would ultimately allow the edge to pull out. However the edge is still relying on the surrounding epoxy to hold it inside of the ski.
Aside from that the only different designs have been Volkl's name print edges which are purely aesthetic. Then Salomon's edge armour which tied both edges to each other. Good concept but through the ski flexing, likely at a different rate and radius from the wire and edges (I don't think those edges had VDS either) the skis delamned and pulled out seemingly more than any other ski. The big thing here was that the edge armour allowed some form of securing the edges without relying purely on epoxy. It never seemed to pan out though, so some enlightenment on this situation would be good for the thread to.
So it's obvious that edges take a beating. Buttering hard, big jumps, getting worked on rails, even skiing big lines, all adds up and heavily degrades the epoxy and the bonded and mechanical connections created by it. This leads up to the notorious pull out. So what if we could add another element of holding edges within a ski? That brought me to this:
Modified 'dorsal fin' edge I drew in AutoCAD:
It's simple enough but I think the addition of a dorsal 'fin' or 'spike' on top of an edge tooth would greatly improve an edge's pullout resistance. This just creates a second mechanical connection by penetrating the sidewalls and core during pressing, which should help offload the other two connections. I think that it would be overkill to have a fin on every tooth. Around every ten teeth seems more reasonable as it covers a concentrated enough area without being so frequent that it makes ski edges heavy. The actual fin shape would have to be played with to see what grips the sidewall the best. That and the frequency of the fins would need experimented with to see what maximizes durability and performance.
Of course everything comes at a sacrifice. Potential cons of the concept? I've already mentioned the weight, but the teeth would be pretty small so I'd imagine that any weight gain would be negligible. Then where the teeth are forced up into the ski's sidewalls might create a stress point and sidewall cracks may propagate from here. I think sidewalls are soft enough to accept a series of small teeth without cracking though. We'd never know without trying the idea.
As it sits right now I don't have any plans to move forward with this by myself. Fact of the matter is, I don't have firstly the time. I'm so busy with a plethora of other skiing related projects, work, and family life, so I don't have much room to squeeze something else in. Secondly I lack the money, equipment, or resources to try manufacturing my own edges with the incorporated fin. Same applies for trying to patenting it. That's why I'm cool with tossing it out here; if has the potential to make gear better, then I'm all for it. I will admit though that making this thread came with a lot of thought about the previously mentioned things. It's not easy to spill out what you feel are good ideas that might benefit others. So please, be somewhat mindful of this.
So NS, any thoughts, comments, idea's on this concept? Again, anything said would be appreciated and taken into consideration!
P.S. It's late at night and I wrote this on an iPad. Expect bad grammar, typos, and unclear thoughts that have been expanded on far too much. Aha, if any writers have some tips, hit me up to.
