@whistlermaverick wrote:

Carbon Nanotube construction and a white top sheet, just what I’ve been asking for from split producers

http://www.sportiva.com/resources/images/Product_Images/TechSheets/VaporNano_techsheet.pdf

So I recently took a class on mechanics of composites last spring and the professor addressed nanotubes. The gist of it is that they essentially add negligible benefit while adding a lot of cost. The primary reason is the composite industry hasn’t figured out how to produce carbon nanotubes that are long enough to provide more strength than the epoxy resin they are embedded in.

So he essentially chocked it up to a marketing campaign. Basically, the moral of the story is:
Carbon fiber = good for stiffness & lightweight
Carbon nanotubes = bad for wallet, negligible impact on stiffness.

@keffler wrote:

@WhitePine wrote:

@whistlermaverick wrote:

Carbon Nanotube construction and a white top sheet, just what I’ve been asking for from split producers

http://www.sportiva.com/resources/images/Product_Images/TechSheets/VaporNano_techsheet.pdf

So I recently took a class on mechanics of composites last spring and the professor addressed nanotubes. The gist of it is that they essentially add negligible benefit while adding a lot of cost. The primary reason is the composite industry hasn’t figured out how to produce carbon nanotubes that are long enough to provide more strength than the epoxy resin they are embedded in.

So he essentially chocked it up to a marketing campaign. Basically, the moral of the story is:
Carbon fiber = good for stiffness & lightweight
Carbon nanotubes = bad for wallet, negligible impact on stiffness.

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

Love it. Glad to see someone else out there is not duped by crappy engineering and marketing bull. In my world, I can always spot when people have no clue. They exclaim, “let’s add carbon nano tubes! That will make it better!” It truly is a running joke around here. Not saying carbon nano tubes are useless by any means, but you really need to know how to use them. That aside, the rest of the design looks interesting and pushing things forward and I’m glad to see people taking risks to develop new products (even if they are skis).

Looks like the white top sheet thing is catching on. I’ll have to walk around SIA and count the number of skis/snowboards going that direction. I think people have been asking for that for years. Personally, I love the look of carbon fiber layups and think it’s a shame to cover over it with a graphic. Oh well. Always trade offs.

White really does help, it is noticeable on both my Chimera and my Prospector (Never Summer). Especially when compared to Venture’s black. I am always trying to convince Klem to go with “inverse” graphics on the Venture splits, with white backgrounds instead of black, and just keep the black on the solids.

@whistlermaverick wrote:

@keffler wrote:

@WhitePine wrote:

@whistlermaverick wrote:

Carbon Nanotube construction and a white top sheet, just what I’ve been asking for from split producers

http://www.sportiva.com/resources/images/Product_Images/TechSheets/VaporNano_techsheet.pdf

The primary reason is the composite industry hasn’t figured out how to produce carbon nanotubes that are long enough to provide more strength than the epoxy resin they are embedded in.

So he essentially chocked it up to a marketing campaign. Basically, the moral of the story is:
Carbon fiber = good for stiffness & lightweight
Carbon nanotubes = bad for wallet, negligible impact on stiffness.

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

Love it. Glad to see someone else out there is not duped by crappy engineering and marketing bull. In my world, I can always spot when people have no clue. They exclaim, “let’s add carbon nano tubes! That will make it better!” It truly is a running joke around here.

So you guys call bullshit on the ‘Prepeg resin matrix’ claim?
“Prepreg is the ultimate composite material. The resin cures at high temperatures undergoing a chemical reaction that transforms the prepreg into a solid structural material that is highly durable, temperature resistant, exceptionally stiff and extremely lightweight.”

Have I been duped by the marketing ?
I’ll defer to the engineers on this one

Hahahaha! the same can be said for a wet lay up… Prepreg is composite material (fiberglass, carbon fiber, basalt, or whatever) which is pre impregnated with epoxy resin. It is stored under a certain temperature to keep it from curing. Then it is laid up with the core and other materials and placed into the mold, brought up to temperature, and the higher temperature cures it. Some will suggest that the use of prepreg, if done right, can result in lower resin to fiber ratios, resulting in a lighter weight lay up for the same strength, but really, a skillfully done wet layup can equal a prepreg layup. As with most things, it is the quality of the workmanship which will matter most in the end, and either approach can produce a superb board.
Typically, both wet layups and prepreg layups are cured in the mold with additional heat, as most epoxies will cure to higher strength with the application of significant heat during the cure.

Ha! Beat to the answer by seconds. 😀

The interesting thing about curing at high heat is that the matrix (resin) will be stable up to the temperature that it was cured at but if that temp is exceeded the matrix will soften up and the dimensions of the assembly/composite can be changed. This shouldn’t be an issue with mass manufactured splits but it’s worth considering for a garage built board that’s left in a black rocket box on a hot summer day.

@chrishami wrote:

@keffler wrote:

@WhitePine wrote:

@whistlermaverick wrote:

Carbon Nanotube construction and a white top sheet, just what I’ve been asking for from split producers

http://www.sportiva.com/resources/images/Product_Images/TechSheets/VaporNano_techsheet.pdf

So I recently took a class on mechanics of composites last spring and the professor addressed nanotubes. The gist of it is that they essentially add negligible benefit while adding a lot of cost. The primary reason is the composite industry hasn’t figured out how to produce carbon nanotubes that are long enough to provide more strength than the epoxy resin they are embedded in.

So he essentially chocked it up to a marketing campaign. Basically, the moral of the story is:
Carbon fiber = good for stiffness & lightweight
Carbon nanotubes = bad for wallet, negligible impact on stiffness.

😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

Love it. Glad to see someone else out there is not duped by crappy engineering and marketing bull. In my world, I can always spot when people have no clue. They exclaim, “let’s add carbon nano tubes! That will make it better!” It truly is a running joke around here. Not saying carbon nano tubes are useless by any means, but you really need to know how to use them. That aside, the rest of the design looks interesting and pushing things forward and I’m glad to see people taking risks to develop new products (even if they are skis).

Looks like the white top sheet thing is catching on. I’ll have to walk around SIA and count the number of skis/snowboards going that direction. I think people have been asking for that for years. Personally, I love the look of carbon fiber layups and think it’s a shame to cover over it with a graphic. Oh well. Always trade offs.

+1

Love it. when I was in chemistry grad school, I spent about half of my time working with CNTs: lots of potential, lots of hype. Very little use outside the ivory tower. Next up: graphene! perhaps an electrically conductive photovoltaic snow repellent transparent topsheet that charges your iphone.

EDIT: as I was posting I got an email announcement: a prof from a fancy research university will be presenting a talk tomorrow on the organic synthesis of carbon nanotubes. No escape.

Since we are having so much fun with this topic, here’s what I saw when I was in grad school more than 10 years ago. Space elevator with a CNT tether. No really… :scratch: :nononno: And there are still those out there trying to make it happen.

“Carbon nanotubes have a few basic problems,” admits Michael Laine, founder of would-be elevator builder LiftPort. “So you don’t just need one breakthrough—you need six.”

http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/space/nasa/why-dont-we-have-space-elevators-15185070

Save us CNT….

Not trying to hate on this, but had to raise the BS flag. I fully support research and dreaming big, just not a fan of marketing gimmicks. Call me old fashion.

What about a piezoelectric top sheet that as you walk, it heats up the board just enough shed snow? 😆 Ok, I’m sure this is a crappy idea, but I did have a K2 Ultima with piezoelectric damping. I don’t think it did anything but they missed the boat as they should have used the electricity to power LED disco lights on the board. Laser light show turns anyone!?! :disco: The park kids would eat this up…. 😳

@Patrick59802 wrote:

This may already be somewhere on Splitboard.com but this is the run through on the Plum Splitboard binding and interface.

Check it out:
http://vimeo.com/85345036

If it proves durable (looks to be given all the metal), and if they bring it to production (two significant “ifs”), Plum will have just kicked everybody’s butt in the realm of soft boot interface. Elegant, functional, smart and minimalist. They need a taller heel riser, but that’s easily remedied.

Boot offerings remain astonishiingly underwhelming. WTF?

@Ecobrad wrote:

Cool to see a new system but the Burton system worked great at Trade Shows too. The true test is how it works with frozen snow crammed into the crevasses of the mechanism. Not saying it won’t work great on the mountain. I wish them luck.

What is this ‘new’ Burton system? Looks the same to me?
Who really cares about Salomon’s quad board?
Plum was the only innovative I think!

Boot offerings remain astonishiingly underwhelming. WTF?

Regarding boots, I just guess Fitwell doesn’t go to ISPO? Deeluxe looks the same this year except they want to “gain some weight” quote on Splitboardmag, which is just fumbling with words. Still funny though.

I would submit that for those riders who still insist on using the caveman technology of strap bindings, the Karakoram Prime System is a very significant upgrade over their previous interface. Now that they have copied the Phantom Bindings style board interface plates, their system will provide better ride mode performance, and it will allow stance adjustability in increments less than one inch.
If I was in soft boots, I never would have considered Karakoram before because of the inability to make anything but gross adjustments to stance width and setback, the fact that the Prime system allows much finer adjustment of binding position is a huge advance for them.

A couple of things that come to my mind:

Jones will not be offering the mountain twin splitboard, but they keep the solid board.
Burton will not be offering the Freebird anymore, just the landlord, spliff and anti-social.
K2 offers the channel system in the Panoramic split aswell, they don’t change anything else, still offering the Kwicker
Smokin will offer a great looking splitboard called Back to the Woods.
Völkl snowboards leaves the Cashew behind and offers the Untrack, a more freeride-oriented board, as well as a splitboard specific binding with an on-the-fly crampon (base of the SP)

it looked the same as previous year, just a change in the design!

Not sure if this was the anti-social or the spliff… i think anti-social, but they were all quite similar!