| Description |
In the ski industry, the performance mechanisms of wax are a heavily debated topic. Waxes are applied to the bottom of polymer ski bases to modify the performance properties, oftentimes for use at certain optimum temperatures or snow conditions. There are no firm industry claims as to why certain base coatings perform the way that they do, and because of this, there is little published research supporting the performance mechanisms of base coatings. In this experiment, the temperature dependence performance of three main proposed mechanisms was tested: hydrophobicity, hardness, and the coefficient of friction. This was done using four common industry waxes, and the results showed that there is no correlation between the advertised use temperature of the wax and the performance of the proposed properties. This leaves the performance mechanisms continuously unknown for further research and provides a basis for future research and exploration. |
