.lenconCare to elaborate more? I know VDS and VibeVeil are different, 4FRNT VibeVeil is a membrane in the tips of the skis, but I did not know that VDS was in every ski, and if so, why don't more companies talk about it? They talk about everything else in the ski...
VDS a thermoplastic rubber like material. When you bend a ski all the layers want to shear against each other but they are held in place due to the epoxy even so the shear forces still exist. Even though every company preps their edge material with either a chemical coating or sandblasting it still doesn't like to bond to the next layer in the ski which is usually a composite like fiberglass, carbon or kevlar. It especially doesn't like to stay bonded to those layers when the ski is flexed and the shearing forces are acting on the materials. So, all companies use VDS, which comes from two main manufacturers, one in Japan and one in Austria. Its typically Black or a Tan color, sometimes it will be perforated on large production skis when the composites are prepreg and the epoxy flow isn't a copious as a traditional wet layup. When manufacturers press a ski they need to get the VDS above 175F to really make the VDS magic happen (this is where the thermo part comes into the thermoplastic name), once the VDS goes above the 175F threshold the VDS melts all over the edge and to the composite material almost like a tar coating with a really amazing bond. In addition, it retains some of its stretch rubber like properties. These properties allow for the smallest amount of shearing to happen between the edge and composite layer which keeps them from falling apart.
In a Moment ski we typically use VDS in 3 to 5 locations depending on the ski and if we have critical bonding surfaces or are trying to achieve damper properties.
Why dont more companies talk about it? I dont know, its a pretty basic element in ski design. Its kind of like when you walk into a sandwich shop and they are telling you about the meat, cheese and style of bread they use....they are not really hyping up the mayonnaise...not that VDS is mayonnaise, because that would be gross and probably wouldn't work as well.