Perfect sanding to make skiing optimum fun

Polyurethane timing belts from Mulco in MONTANA ski and board service robots

For more than 30 years, national ski teams, ski manufacturer and winter sport lovers praise and rely on optimally finished coatings, highest quality edges and best carving properties. They assist enthusiastic winter sport athletes to perfect their sports equipment and achieve best possible skiing conditions. The world of alpine and nordic ski sports could not do without them: Ski service machinery of the Swiss MONTANA Sport International AG. The company strengthens its world wide leading position with its new „DIAMOND“ and „SAPHIR“ machines to provide a service for skiers and/or snowboarders. For the design of the drives and transport units of these machines, Dirk Hausdörfer, Project Manager of the Construction and Design Department of Knoll Feinmechanik GmbH, Umkirch, fully relies on polyurethane timing belts from Mulco.

Loading station

When during the winter season athletes use their own or rented skies to carve downhill, to elegantly glide cross country or to master their snowboards in an acrobatic manner, hardly any of them realises neither the effect of forces and wear acting on coatings and edges, nor the decisive importance of their optimum condition.

„A ski or snowboard is only optimally prepared, when the service steps from the coating, the edges through to the tuning (highgloss polishing of the edge) have been run through in all servicing stages at consistently high quality and precision“, explains Dirk Hausdörfer standing at a service robot of the SAPHIR type and placing a pair of skies, fully equipped with ski bindings, on the cycle controlled ski feeder driven by polyurethane timing belts with welded on flights.

Tailor-made timing belt appearance

BRECO V Timing Belt

Noticing the disbelieving look at the black pigmented polyurethane timing belts BRECO 32 T 10/2880-V, he adds: „Skiing is a -

René Preßler and Dirk Hausdörfer

lifestyle sport, in which even the appearance of our machinery plays an important role. Many of them operate directly in the renting stations or in sports outfitters“. These 2880 mm long and 32 mm wide welded timing belts of the ski loading station, explains René Preßler, Specialist Consultant at the Mulco partner Hilger u. Kern, Mannheim, are customised and of a black colour, because the light standard colour of the timing belts would soon look unattractive due to the high degree of soiling by the skis.

In the loading station providing a magazine for 6 skis including binding, the ski length is automatically detected, automatically centred, and the ski is transported to the sanding level by means of the PowerVac vacuum system over a vertical slide, the drive of which is ensured by a high-performance SYNCHROFLEX 16 AT5/390 GEN III timing belt. There the process starts by sanding the coating on a round sanding stone. Its 30 computer controlled sanding programs permit individual adaptation of the most important parameters. „It is possible to adjust 12 dressing tool depths, from 0.5/100 to 6/100 mm“, explains Dirk Hausdörfer. Subsequently the coating is given a structure that permits it to optimally glide on the respective snow conditions.

Ceramic belt technology for the "fast edge"

In the next station the ski or snowboard edges are sanded at an edge angle of <90°. This is decisive for optimum grip and excellent carving properties. Thanks to the special MONTANA ceramic belt technology, sanding is performed from the ski starting point to its end without run-in marks „in the running direction“. This is what guarantees the „fast edge“.

Radial Tuning

In the third step, the „Tuning“ the fine burr generated by the sanding process is removed and the edge bevelled to a 0.5° angle. The subsequent high-gloss polishing completes the high-precision servicing process. With the „Radial-Tuning“MONTANA has devised a special method to increase the amount of sagging of the ski edges in the larger shovel and end area. This measure makes skies and snowboards more turning friendly and significantly reduces the risk of falls in curves. In the world of skiing, the „MONTANA Crystal Glide Finish“ achieved has become a synonym for highest quality in ski and snowboard preparation.

As an option, an automatic waxing station can be installed in the SAPHIR to optimally round off the automated service. The capacity of the servicing centre is up to 40 pairs of skies per hour.

Precise, robust, economical

MONTANA service machines are in operation world wide, not only in small service companies with less than 100 services per season, but also in large companies with more than 100,000 services. All machines from Knoll/MONTANA are distinguished by their forward-looking technology, high precision and robust design, paired with a high economic effect. due to their high precision, precision and favourable cost factor, the maintenance-free polyurethane timing belts from the Mulco range are an indispensable component.

Hanover, July 2007
Mulco-Europe EWIV