DuPont: First commercial use of renewably-sourced DuPont™ Hytrel® RS in ski-boots from Salomon

The collar of the new Salomon ‘Ghost’ freerider alpine ski-boot constitutes one of the first commercial uses worldwide of DuPont™ Hytrel® RS thermoplastic elastomer (www.dupont.com). Providing all the traditional performance characteristics of Hytrel® for such a demanding winter sports application – including impact resistance and flexibility at low temperatures – the particular grade of Hytrel® RS used contains 27 wt % renewably-sourced material. The Salomon “Ghost” ski-boot is available solely to Salomon-sponsored freeriders during the winter 2008/09 season, with its general release to the public planned for winter 2009/10.

Ski-boot collars help provide a secure fit of the boot to the skier and protect the lower leg. At the same time they need to be flexible enough to ensure a good and reliable transfer of movement from the leg to the ski. Already familiar with the properties of the DuPont thermoplastic elastomer from its use for collars and soles of its Nordic ski shoes, the recent launch of renewably-sourced grades of Hytrel® caught Salomon’s attention as it sought to increase the environmental credentials of its latest alpine ski-boots. “We already knew Hytrel® could offer the required performance for the collar of our new ‘Ghost’ freerider boots as an alternative to polyurethane,” confirms Pascal Pallatin, alpine boot & advanced research project manager at Salomon (Annecy, France). “The fact that we could now access a grade of the high performance material with a significant renewable content is an additional selling point for our boots.”

Advert

Hytrel® RS thermoplastic elastomers provide all the performance characteristics of traditional Hytrel® materials, while offering a more environmentally friendly solution than petroleum-based products. Containing between 20% and 60% renewably-sourced material, Hytrel® RS thermoplastic elastomers are made using Cerenol™ – a renewably-sourced polyol derived from corn sugar – and are, as moulding for Salomon confirmed, easily processed by conventional thermoplastic methods. The properties of Hytrel® RS of particular relevance to this ski-boot collar application include excellent flex fatigue and flexibility at temperatures as low as -20°C (versus polyurethane) and high impact resistance. The collar is injection moulded as a single piece and coloured white using masterbatch. The Salomon ‘Ghost’ motif is added to the collar using pad printing.

Comprehensive field testing by Salomon freeriders has demonstrated that Hytrel® RS best fulfils all requirements for the ski-boot collar in terms of elasticity, impact resistance, strength and stiffness. “The freeriders returned with very positive comments on the boot’s behaviour at low temperatures as well as its consistent behaviour over a wide temperature range,” concludes Pascal Pallatin.

DuPont de Nemours (Deutschland) GmbH, Neu-Isenburg, Germany

back to news list