Resources for materials used in ski construction.

BamjamSo I'm working on a project for a materials science class, and we picked race ski construction as our focus. We have to pick a material used in race skis to analyze, compare to other comparable materials used, weigh the pros and cons, etc. I was wondering if anyone knew of any good resources that could provide detailed descriptions of materials used in skis. We need to be able to talk very in depth about material properties and so far it has been difficult to pinpoint specific materials, I can only find general stuff like "made with polymer" which won't really cut it. Appreciate any help, and rip on woooohooo winters almost here! Sorry if this is in the wrong section, wasn't sure whether it belonged in ski gabber or here.

EDIT: I think we are focusing on base material to be more specific.
**This thread was edited on Nov 10th 2018 at 6:47:17pm

**This thread was edited on Nov 10th 2018 at 8:49:47pm

Call up a smaller ski company and give them your shpeel, I’m sure they can help. After all, they are the ones who know the skis the best, since they make them.

BamjamSo I'm working on a project for a materials science class, and we picked race ski construction as our focus. We have to pick a material used in race skis to analyze, compare to other comparable materials used, weigh the pros and cons, etc. I was wondering if anyone knew of any good resources that could provide detailed descriptions of materials used in skis. We need to be able to talk very in depth about material properties and so far it has been difficult to pinpoint specific materials, I can only find general stuff like "made with polymer" which won't really cut it. Appreciate any help, and rip on woooohooo winters almost here! Sorry if this is in the wrong section, wasn't sure whether it belonged in ski gabber or here.

EDIT: I think we are focusing on base material to be more specific.
**This thread was edited on Nov 10th 2018 at 6:47:17pm

**This thread was edited on Nov 10th 2018 at 8:49:47pm

I would say the only realllll different material would be the bases, and you could talk sintered vs extruded. Nothing else is that different material wise, just the way they're used

edit: didn't see edit

**This post was edited on Nov 11th 2018 at 12:06:30am

As said above call a smaller company. I’m sure moment or on3p would be happy to talk to you.

Your best bet to get the proper material properties of the base materials is to go direct to the producer. A large proportion of production skis use isosport bases they have all their technical data on the different kinds of bases they produce here: https://www.isosport.com/en/categories/isospeed
There are also other producers of base materials, one of them is CPS Gmbh but their website is under construction:http://www.cps-gmbh.net/ it might come back before you need to submit, another is crown plastics/durasurf their website with all their base materials is here: https://crownplastics.com/recreation/ . You might also be able to get some useful information from the companies that sell ski materials for DIY builders like https://www.skibaumarkt.de/en/category/base-skibase-snowboardbase/ , http://www.junksupply.com/product-category/plastics-ptex/ , http://www.store.skilab.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6 They generally sell plastics from one of the above producers though.

razors-chazYour best bet to get the proper material properties of the base materials is to go direct to the producer. A large proportion of production skis use isosport bases they have all their technical data on the different kinds of bases they produce here: https://www.isosport.com/en/categories/isospeed
There are also other producers of base materials, one of them is CPS Gmbh but their website is under construction:http://www.cps-gmbh.net/ it might come back before you need to submit, another is crown plastics/durasurf their website with all their base materials is here: https://crownplastics.com/recreation/ . You might also be able to get some useful information from the companies that sell ski materials for DIY builders like https://www.skibaumarkt.de/en/category/base-skibase-snowboardbase/ , http://www.junksupply.com/product-category/plastics-ptex/ , http://www.store.skilab.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=6 They generally sell plastics from one of the above producers though.

You're a legend man this helps a lot! Thanks to all for the help and suggestions.

Head over to http;//www.skibuilders.com for the forum of all the folks building their own skis...lots of advice and experience on tap there!

ExoticSkishttp;//www.skibuilders.com

This is going to be your best bet.

While the material companies listed above will have the best technical information, they'll most likely brush you off as they deal in very, very large production and won't have the time of day. Wouldn't hurt to try though.

Somewhat along the same vein, small companies like Moment and ON3P love to talk about skis and the construction that goes along with them, but it's also our busiest part of the season, and the people at both of these companies that have the knowledge to give you the proper information are slammed doing a million different jobs.

Additionally, race skis from companies like Atomic have a special base material built strictly for them, and the composite companies won't hand that information out lightly.

skibuilders.com is full of very intelligent people that love to chit chat about stuff like this, and a good chunk of people on the site have the proper knowledge to give you the information you need.

Best of luck on the project!