Sweden based Ridea Skis have recently released their new high-performance ski models built using Composite Reinforcements. The newly developed touring skis are the lightest high-performance skis in the world.
Touring skis are made for ski mountaineering, i.e., to ski or climb uphill and then ski downhill. When moving uphill it is desirable to have the lightest possible skis, and when skiing downhill it is desirable to have the best possible handling characteristics.
The main challenges for Ridea Skis was to maintain the mechanical properties of the carbon fibre wood core based skis while reducing the weight by more than 50%, ensuring safe fastening of bindings for various fastening patterns and to maintain tensile strength.
The skis are reinforced with TeXtreme carbon UD tapes from Oxeon, braided in 45 degree orientation for extreme torsional stiffness. The fabric of choice is a hybrid combining a high modulus HS40-fiber in the width direction of the ski, with an aramid fiber in length direction, to enable the skis’ hybrid wood/foam core to withstand the compression forces.
Tobias Björnhov, Founder and Manager at Ridea Skis, says;
The combination of R-Idea’s patented composite manufacturing process and the TeXtremereinforcements used give us possibilities to significantly reduce weight and still meet the stiffness requirements that has previously not been possible to obtain from the use of any other carbon reinforcement. This is a result of the extremely high fiber volume fraction that is achievable through the process combined with the use of TeXtreme
The construction that finally provided the solution included features such as: TeXtreme carbon spread tow tape filament wound braiding, DIAB H-foam/wood/aluminium hybrid core, pre-moulded carbon/aramid spread tow fabric, large size steel edges for durability.
The results give a weight reduction of over 50% resulting in the worlds lightest freeride touring ski.
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