Why no wax chemistry has appeared?

No-wax chemistry is a clear reaction of the wax industry on the extremely low life time of liquid waxes based on dissolved waxes. 

The life time of waxes applied on the ski base is quite low in general. Due to very weak chemical bonds between waxes and PE, waxes need to rely on mechanical retention inside the ski base. Only waxes which can penetrate the ski base – or better: free cavities in the amorphous regions – can be retained more strongly providing longer life time.

Waxes sticking to the very top surface of the ski base – with no retention inside the ski base – can last for an extremely short time.

 To make waxes penetrate the ski base, more pre-conditions need to be given:

•  ski base material needs to have free cavities to take waxes
• heat needs to be introduced to increase the mobility of ski base material and liquidize the waxes
• wax filled cavities need to shrink after cooling to retain wax mechanically

·          As you can see the standard liquid waxes where the gliding agent is dissolved in a fast-evaporating carrier do fulfil only a part of one condition needed for a strong mechanical retention = they are liquid…that’s all…

The idea that liquid waxes can penetrate the ski base material due to the liquid status does not work in reality because especially the heat induced effects are completely missing.

To replace the heat approach and keep liquid waxes application as simple as possible, alternatives have been searched for to improve the mechanical retention of liquid waxes and thus their life time.

The clear answer is no-wax chemistry = gliding agents in a carrier which helps to penetrate the ski base.

To penetrate the ski base etching or swelling approach is often used. To fix the gliding agent in and on the ski base special carriers are used which can connect with both PE and gliding agents.

No wax chemistry is the approach how to keep liquid gliding agents application simple and to achieve a reasonable life time of liquid gliding agents… With waxes it is – however – hardly possible, that’s why no-wax chemistry…

 

What is no-wax chemistry?

 What is no-wax chemistry?

 

The most of no-fluor wax systems (base waxes, powders, liquids, speeders etc.) are still based on waxes (different types, blends of waxes enriched with different additives).

 

All wax-based products rely especially on the mechanical retention in the ski base, especially in amorphous regions of the ski base. Chemical bonds of wax-based products are normally too weak.

 

Mechanical retention in the ski base has its limits which cannot be overcome.

 

That’s the reason why several ski wax manufacturers approached the no-wax way.

 

How it works?

 

No-wax chemistry products contain normally 3 different components. First component is an etching agent which is used to etch / change the surface of the ski base slightly in order to prepare it for absorbing gliding agents. Second component is a binder / carrier which is normally a polymer with low-melting temperature which is filled with the respective gliding agents. Binders are needed because the gliding agents normally do not stick to UHMWPE even if etched slightly. Third component are gliding agents themselves which are very often nano-particles of different substances.

 

After application the ski base surface is etched slightly, the binder filled with gliding agents is entering the slightly disordered ski base surface and unneeded substances evaporate as a result of which the no-wax product will change the status from liquid to solid. Finished. Ski base is coated with a polymer-like agent continuously.