Leverkusen, Germany (Friday, June 30, 2006) -

Nordica's Speedmachine 14 alpine ski boot is manufactured using transparent plastic polymers manufactured by Bayer MaterialScience AG of Germany. (photo: Nordica)

Skiers may remember the Lange Banshee, the first alpine ski boot to be manufactured utilizing transparent plastic. Here in Leverkusen, the epicenter of the German chemical industry, Bayer MaterialScience AG has created a new generation of transparent plastic materials for use in ski boots. With the introduction of these new Desmopan aromatic ether thermoplastic polyurethanes (TPUs), the company is promising skiers even better performance.

"The strength of the new grades lies in the significantly improved low-temperature flexibility and low-temperature impact strength," says Luigi Cermesoni, head of the Sports & Leisure TPU segment at Bayer MaterialScience. "These features mean that ski boots can be made stronger and manufactured in thinner wall thicknesses, thus allowing greater design freedom. This is especially true for areas where two different TPU materials overlap."

The new materials are already being used by well-known manufacturers such as Tecnica (in its Diablo model) and Nordica (in its Speedmachine model).

The market success of these transparent TPU grades can be traced back to the greater degree of freedom they allow in designing ski boots. For example, alternating between transparent and opaque colored areas produces varied contrasts. If decorated areas are oversprayed with transparent TPU, a 3D deep-gloss effect is produced, which makes the design stand out. The interesting and attractive technical features of a ski boot's internal workings can be made clearly visible, allowing the manufacturer to communicate his design skills and technical expertise.

These new materials have improved free-flowing properties. This makes more complex parts geometry easier to produce and allows gentler processing at lower injection pressures, all resulting in lower cost. Crystallization has also been optimized. Compared to first-generation TPU grades, the melt solidifies even faster, which reduces cooling and cycle time, thus increasing productivity.

The new plasticizer-free and UV-stabilized TPU grades are available in various hardnesses. Desmopan 9650DU and Desmopan 9659DU are particularly suited to the trend for altogether softer ski boots.