Technological ray of hope for the snowboard scene The first boards for gliding over snow existed as

Technological ray of hope for the snowboard scene

The first boards for gliding over snow existed as early as 1900, but it was not until 1963 that American surfers brought the feeling of surfing to the snow and developed the original snowboard—the so-called snurfer. A few years later, the snowboard drew the interest of the winter sports industry, and since 1998, snowboarding has been recognized as an Olympic sport.

Chemnitz University of Technology researchers have presented an innovation from the 2020/2021 winter sports season: Together with silbaerg GmbH, a spin-off from the Institute of Lightweight Structures at Chemnitz University of Technology, they have developed a lightweight snowboard that can also be manufactured far more sustainably than comparable boards. This is made possible by a new type of textile fiber, a semi-finished product made of carbon fibers. By using the dry fiber placement process, fiber waste in snowboard production can be reduced by around 60%. “This not only saves costs, but thanks to the board’s sustainable production, its carbon footprint is also significantly reduced,” says Prof. Dr. Holger Cebulla, head of the Chair of Textile Technologies.

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