How skis is made

[Mike]

Here is a video showing how Elan skis atre made

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4ENjYTH4Qc

[skier]

I am impressed with the Elan factory.

BTW, their 'spokesman' is Ingemar Stenmark, the legendary Swedish skier who has won 86 races from 1974 to 1989

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingemar_Stenmark

[Mike]

Here is a video on the science in making a pair of skis:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fhwcSdyloI

[Mike]

This is the Icelantic factory in USA:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyE-1fKQzzM&feature=related

[Mike]

Insight on different ski manufacturers:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YlAjzBV6iw&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_vo8pua5yk&feature=related

[Mike]

This was apparently K2's factory in Seattle, I think K2 has now moved their production to China

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T2oAJndXqo

[Mike]

Bruce Jahnke, Director of Product Testing at K2, explained how their skis are tested.

"We test our skis, boots, poles, helmets, and snowshoes in the Cold Temperature Environmental Test Chamber. It's basically a big refrigerator set to -4 degrees Fahrenheit, where we perform stress tests and cyclic tests on these products.

The engineers who are part of K2's Product Test department wear insulated coveralls, mittens and boots — the same insulated clothes you see the mushers wear on the Iditarod. We have developed a system so engineers can get in and do their job quickly and get out; usually no more than 10-15 minutes. But the current record is three hours without a break.

Our current Cold Temperature Chamber has been around for 15 years, and before that, we had a much smaller version that aimed to accomplish the same thing.

The point of the lab is to test products in as close to real-world conditions as possible. Stress testing involves generating forces and torques that match the loads a skier would apply while sliding down the hill. Some tests are dynamic, where we subject the product to impact at high rates of speed. Other tests are cyclic tests, which put the product through hundreds of thousands of repeated movements. These types of tests let us evaluate how our products will perform over many years— and we can accomplish it in just a few days.

Stress testing, or testing to failure, is just one of the tests we use. Characterizations tests evaluate stiffness and torsional rigidity, and we also measure how UV radiation will affect the look and performance of our products.

We don't just test the finished product—we also test the materials that make up the skis: the wood core, steel edge, and polyethylene base. And of course, K2 engineers are on snow 10-12 months of the year perfecting their designs."

[Mike]

The type of construction used to make a ski has a direct bearing on how the ski will perform and sometimes on how long it will last. A feature as simple as the sidewalls can make all the difference. “Sidewall construction" has become synonymous with high performance skis partly because it is strong and effective for high performance. Ski makers have been very creative in how they choose sidewalls to tailor their skis to the mission. Skis have 3 basic constructions: Sidewall, Cap, and a Hybrid of the two.

Sidewall is a more costly way to build a ski, years ago skiers would only see the highest end of skis with sidewall construction. The rest of the skis were "capped" with a sheet of fiberglass, and foam was injected into the ski. In recent years a hybrid of the two constructions became available, K2 was the first to do this in their snowboards, sidewall almost the entire length of the board that would taper into a cap at the contact points on each end.

Here is the link to a website showing the construction of a pair of skis:
http://www.mechanicsofsport.com/skiing/equipment/skis/ski_construction.html