A while back I was looking into what titanal actually is since lots of companies seem to use it. Though I don't have the info in front of me, I can find it if people want the specifics. I was mistaken in thinking that it's a titanium alloy when it's an aluminum alloy, which is only made by one company in europe.
I tried to find a US alloy which is similar [and maybe cheaper] but since the european alloy numbering scheme is different than the US one it was kind of difficult. There was one 7000 series alloy that was close, but it didn't have quite the same fatigue resistance as titanal, which is what makes it great for skis, and it seemed equaly rare and expensive.
The reason I'm writing this fairly uninformative post is that I was looking at a pair of Volkl Sumos at an online shop and it said that they had spring steel in them. It doesn't say anything about metal in the Sumos on volkl's site, but then it doesn't say anything about the Mantras having any metal which obviously do. I've never heard of anybody using spring steel, stainless or titanium yes. But both of those are very expensive like titanal, where as spring steel is really cheap.
Besides the weight penalty can anybody think of a reason that spring steel would be worse than titanal? And K's, some of the ski's you guys have made have some titanal. Does it make a big difference?
And happy new year everybody. Try not to get into trouble.
what's the deal with metals
Moderators: Head Monkey, kelvin, bigKam, skidesmond, chrismp
as to spring steel in Voelkls; I would think that it might possibly refer to the edges--speaking to a factory rep last summer-- they were pretty interested in designing/making ski's with less warranty issues------less/no metal and abs sidewalls instead of wood--------leather topsheats on the otherhand dont fit this M.O. I too am interested in hearing more about incorporating the use of metal/titanel into your designs-------of the ones I've seen here; it seams sort of odd to only use one layer of metal(titanel) (in a non-binding plate fashion) as this (I) would create a structural imbalance---Atomic did this once in the 80's: and I do not think one pair exists that was'nt bent in short order (and no I did not spell Voelkl wrong-------I do not have an umlaut on this machine)
Another option for a less exotic aluminum for skis might be the 6069 alloy. That's what's used for the chainstays on the Castellano Fango mnt bike, which is a pivotless soft-tail. Which means it has to have good fatigue resistance. And this is the guy that designed the Ibis BowTi, so I imagine he knows what he's doing.
http://www.castellanodesigns.com/fango.html
http://www.castellanodesigns.com/fango.html