The Effect of Elastic Compensation Arms on the Field and Laboratory Behavior of Alpine Skis

An elastic compensation arm hinged at the binding plate and preloaded via a screw was applied to the ski shovel: its effect was to redistribute the pressure applied by the skier on the shovel and to allow the full contact of the edges on the snow during a turn. This enhanced the edge pressure profile at the shovel tip as revealed during bench tests in the lab, thus improving the handling during the turn phase as perceived in the field by expert testers.Resultsof the study showed that it is possible to modify the edge pressure profile of a ski by means of the application of elastic compensation arms of suitable stiffness, preload and length. The improvement in the field performance is correlated with the specific engineering parameters that can be evaluated in a laboratory setup.