SNOWBOARD PARTS

A snowboard disassembled into its individual parts

Hmmm... When looking for the best snowboard for you, you can quickly stumble across a lot of incomprehensible manufacturer information that can often only be deciphered with expert knowledge. This manufacturer information can usually be divided into two parts: On the one hand, you get information about the materials used in the board and on the other hand, the so-called "snowboard specifications". The snowboard specifications deal with topics such as sidecut, contact length, effective edge length, sidecut radius or stance offset.

In this post I would like to share some general information about the materials used in the construction of a snowboard share with you and explain which individual parts a snowboard consists of. The materials used determine weight, flex and ride feel and thus many essential characteristics of the snowboard!

SURFACE:

Snowboard bases are made of P-Tex, a polyethylene plastic. Basically, you can distinguish between two different types of bases. On the one hand, the cheap and easy-care extruded base and on the other hand, the faster and higher quality sintered coating . The coating used is often described more precisely with a number - e.g. sintered 7200. This number describes the molecular mass of the polyethylene and the following applies: the higher this number, the higher the molecular mass. A high molecular mass indicates a high-quality coating with better sliding properties and greater durability. Detailed information about the different pads can be found in my articles about the extruded pad and the sintered pad.

EDGE:

The edges of a snowboard are made of stainless steel . On the inside of the edge there are small T-profiles which are used to attach the edges to the board. Two different types of edges are used in the manufacture of snowboards: full-length edges and side-attached edges. This sounds confusing, but it isn't. With full-length edges, the edge runs around the entire snowboard in one piece and the two ends meet at the tail of the board. This full-length edge has the strongest connection to the board, but is very difficult to repair if damaged. Edges that are only attached to the sides - i.e. do not run over the nose and tail - only run in those places where the board comes into contact with snow when the edge is pressed. This variant makes the board a little lighter, but is not always as robust as full-length edges and offers little protection to the nose and tail.

SIDE WALL:

The sandwich construction of a snowboard is the most common construction. In the sandwich construction, the individual components a snowboard layered on top of each other and glued together . The sidewalls are attached to the side of the board and protect the core. A sidewall is made of ABS plastic and forms the connection between the topsheet and the edge.

Some boards are still built with the so-called cap construction, where the topsheet and fiberglass are pulled over the sides of the core and glued to the edge. These boards have no sidewalls and easily burst at the joints.

FIBERGLASS:

The fiberglass fabric consists of thin, interwoven fiberglass threads. The fiberglass fabric is coated with epoxy resin, a 2-component adhesive, and then glued to the wooden core as a covering. In this case, sheathing means that the fiberglass fabric is applied to both the Glued to the top and bottom of the core . The fiberglass is used to make the board stiffer and more responsive, and the fiberglass fabric slows down the loss of tension in the core.

Bi-axial wrap – With bi-axial glass fiber fabric, the individual glass fiber threads are woven lengthwise and crosswise at a 90 degree angle to each other. The result is a light, reliable sheathing that ensures a forgiving – “comfortable” driving behavior. The torsional stiffness remains low – ie the board lets can be twisted relatively easily, without much effort.
Tri-axial wrap – In tri-axial glass fibre fabrics, the individual glass fibre threads are woven together at an angle of 45 degrees (+45°, 0° and -45°) in addition to the longitudinal direction. In contrast to bi-axial fabrics, the Torsional rigidity is increased and acting forces are distributed more evenly .

CORE:
The core is the "soul of the snowboard" because the materials and the structure of the core determine most of the properties of the finished board. The core defines the strengths and special features of the board, so to speak. The advantages and characteristics of a core naturally also depend on the materials the core is made of.

Due to its excellent all-round properties, Wood is the most popular core material . A wood core consists of several glued together strips of laminated hardwoods such as Beech, poplar, birch, bamboo or various combinations of these woods. Wood cores impress with a natural, lively flex and have very good vibration dampening. High-tech materials such as carbon and Kevlar are sometimes incorporated into the wood cores to reinforce the core in certain areas . These reinforcements of the core ensure that the board has more pop and is lighter and more durable.

Foam cores are used in the production of cheaper boards . Boards with a foam core are machine-made and are therefore much cheaper to produce. In contrast, Boards with a wooden core are made by hand . Unfortunately, foam cores have the disadvantage that they are relatively soft and their overall performance is not as good as that of a wooden core. Foam cores also tend to lose their camber much more quickly. You can also read about which types of camber are built and what advantages and disadvantages certain shapes have. Click here for the article about snowboard shapes!

RESIN:

A lot of epoxy resin, a two-component adhesive, is used as a bonding agent or adhesive when making a snowboard. A little tip: If you have to glue something on the board after it has been damaged (e.g. top sheet), then I recommend using epoxy resin. You can buy it in any hardware store.

INSERTS:

The inserts are made from made of stainless steel, have a screw thread and are installed in the snowboard so that you can screw a binding onto the board later. All the forces you exert on the snowboard are transferred through the inserts into the board. For this reason, the inserts must be very well attached to the core of the board. When it comes to inserts, you often come across the numbers 4 x 4, 5 x 2 and 6 x 2. With the 4 x 4 system, the inserts are arranged at a distance of 4 cm. With the 5 x 2 or 6 x 2 insert system, the distance between the rows of inserts is only 2 cm. With the latter two, the stance can be adjusted to the exact centimeter.

TOP SHEET:

The top sheet is the part of the snowboard that you probably see first – the top of the snowboard . The top sheet not only serves as Protection for the inner workings of the snowboard, but the graphics on the top sheet should also meet optical and aesthetic requirements. A top sheet can be made of many different materials such as Nylon, wood, fiberglass, plastic and various combinations of these materials.

Wow... that was pretty technical, but I definitely didn't want to withhold the information that I think is particularly important. I know that technical topics are often difficult, but I still hope that I was able to shed some light on the subject and that you won't be confused the next time you make a purchase. Now you know what parts a snowboard is made of and what function each part has. You can also find other interesting articles on the subject of snowboards here.

With that in mind – see you soon on the mountain!

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