Ski Builders Forum

Hey SBers,

I'm working on my Mechanical Engineering senior design project at the University of Colorado. Our end goal is to help a snowboard company make an environmentally friendly snowboard through both reduction of waste and energy use as well as use of more environmentally friendly materials. I was hoping some of you could help me out.

Do you know of any organic fiber composites or more environmentally friendly alternatives to fiberglass?
Have you heard of any eco-friendly epoxies? The company in question is already using VOC-free epoxies.
Can you think of other ways to make a board more eco friendly?

We are already exploring FSC and USFS wood as well as bamboo, paulownia, etc for core material. We are also trying to find recycled ABS with a high fracture toughness for side walls. Thanks,

-h

I know a LOT of people on here have looked in great detail at this very thing. I haven't myself, but I find it a very interesting idea.

There are woven hemp fibers people have used as a composite fiber for other things (not skis). And I think there are soy-based resins??? But it sounds like their durability and strength might be questionable for a use like skis, but again, I personally don't know.

The thought of bamboo as a sustainably grown wood for cores is awesome, but only if its locally grown, and you have to consider the energy put into laminating it into boards, plus the glue involved in that lamination. On3P uses bamboo cores, but I think it is for stiffness-to-weight savings, and not environmental reasons.

Sweet to see another CU ME student here (I'm an alum from '04 and still get larry monkeyman's emails). I think really your best option is to focus on the eliminating waste side of things. One thing I have really tried to focus on is eliminating mixed waste. For example, when wood and fiberglass are cut after laminating, that waste is truly waste. On the other hand, if everything is preformed, you produce about the same amount of waste, just that it can be separated (wood can be recycled, composted, etc. plastics can be recycled as well) the fiberglass scraps are still waste, but at least the total loss is minimized. I am sure they are already doing this though.

There is a company here where I live in Sweden working with the issue of Biocomposites, and they even have a website for the project. It looks like they aren't quite to commercialization, but it could be worth mentioning in your project as a future potential. Check out under technology... there is a dupont product called 'Sorona' that says "engineering composite" it could be a potential.

http://www.biocomp.eu.com/DesktopDefaul ... 0&tabid=15

GO BUFFS!

have a look at the site of libtech snowboards. they use basaltex instead of fibreglass and some bean-derivate topsheets.
also nidecker snowboards uses recycled base materials for one of their models (the random).

I haven't made skis yet because i didn't find much work this summer, so i have just been researching eco materials. i plan to use hemp for the fiberglass, i talked to a guy and enviro textiles who used it to make skateboards and he said you could go with a lighter oz fabric and keep the durability, i plan to make a practice layup with just a board planed to a core thickness and the hemp fabric and see how the shape holds. look into entropy resins with signal snowboards i believe they made a pine based epoxy. as someone mentioned you need to think about the life of the ski after it can't be used anymore, for a while i looked for recycled or bio plastics for the sidewall and topsheet but if all the top parts of the ski are natural then after the the ski has been used you simply pry the base material off and recycle the two, plus their are alot of propeerties that wood has that add to performance. Also i have been looking into tung oil for a waterproof finish over the wood. i plan on making pow skis so lately i have been thinkiing of using cork in the body of the tip and tail for added lightness. then having a strait grain dense wood as a sidewall tip/tail guard and an ash underfoot for better edge and longer binding mount life (FSC). cork is a really cool eco material you should look into it. I was thinking it could be cool if more research was put into making a bio plastic version of base material, maybe starting a thing like 1% 4 the planet but put the money to bio plastic research, but using some kind of reclaimed or scrap material for the bases would be a good alternative, and i'm still trying to find some. lastley instead of using inks for the graphics i was going to use a wood burner kit, hope this helps.

what a great topic!
i too have been looking into making my boards have as small of a carbon footprint as possible!

check out the pine based resins used by Signal snowboards,
you can eat it!!



created by entropy resisns , a pretty sweet company, using natures strong bonds and what not
http://www.entropyresins.com/

the only part of the board that i cant figure out a eco friendly solution for is the base,... any ideas folks?

yea get the "overstock" base material from Crown Plastics.
If you dont buy it, it will get thrown away or run thru a recycler.
So in a sense, you're recycling someone elses mistakes.
And its cheap as hell, then when you've collected enough of the scrap cutoffs from building skis/boards, make a "die cut" base or two out of those, send the rest of the pile back to crown.


Soy based, tree based, or not, epoxy is irreversible. I'm waiting for a curable thing like epoxy that can someday be reheated and seperated. = recyclable snowboard!?!?!?

Is that guy for real!? Anyone remember Ule Gibbons and Grapenut cereal?
"Ever eat a pine tree? Many parts are edible". Maybe I'm dating myself w/ that commercial but I can't believe that guy drank the pine resin or whatever it was.

So does anyone know how well it works and how to buy it (or how good it tastes? Bet it be good on ice cream )? There website doesn't give much info. http://www.entropyresins.com/

has anyone been able to get ahold of that company?? i would like to try out some of there "eco" friendly products. Can't believe that guy ate it. i normally have to were a bio suit just to get near the stuff i am currently using.

Going to be trying a batch of the bio resin soon i will let you know how well it works.

so were you able to get a hold of them? was the price pretty competitive with normal epoxy?

Why are air bubbles bad?
Other than perhaps visual imperfections.

He eats it twice.

air bubbles are bad because they create a void which weakens the entire laminate.

The bubles don't press out or go away during layup and pressing?

I would think the act of wetting glass would introduce air.

Awesome. I have been looking specifically for that epoxy. Good to see it around.

FYI, the basalt fiber composite is made by Sudaglass and has a higher tensile strength than triax (supposedly, we will be testing this once we apply epoxy to a few sample pieces), allowing you to use a lighter weight form

I have not been able to find much on Mervin/Libtech/GNU's suppliers for soy based sidewalls or even the castor bean oil based topsheet. Does anyone know anything about those?

Recycled base is iffy in a performance board as the quality can vary greatly from one batch to another. This is due to the fact that they mix various grades of material with virgin material to achieve the desired product. TIVAR recycled is the UHMWPE I've been looking in to, but it is not offered as a sintered and heat treated sheet. Durasurf is pretty much the only domestic base material, hence the wide spread use.

In addition to helping minimize flash (cut off waste material) we are building the factory a passive solar heater to supplement, and hopefully replace for most days, the current propane heaters. Lighting in the factory is already high efficiency flourescent lighting. Does anyone know what the power consumption is for heat blankets, compressors, saws, etc. when they are turned off? Do power tools "leak" electricity?

....and can anyone point me in the direction of a domestic paulownia supplier?

Thanks for the info. And Larry Monke is still the man. haha