Colltex Drybase

The back of the ski skins is a fabric made of cotton and synthetics. The back of all Colltex skins is now additionally treated with a special coating. Only then, the proven hotmelt resin adhesive is applied. This additional coat called Colltex Drybase has the following advantages: **Hardly any water absorption:** the hollow spaces in the fabric are filled by Colltex Drybase. Thanks to this sealing, hardly any water can penetrate into the fabric back. The ski skin will remain dry and light even in warm snow conditions. **Chemical bond:** the Colltex Drybase coating creates an optimum chemical bond to the hotmelt resin adhesive. The hotmelt thus adheres in an optimum manner to the back of the ski skin. This renders tearing off the adhesive very unlikely. **More durable:** the Colltex Drybase coating makes the back of the ski skin more resistant to torsion, stronger and more durable – without losing its suppleness. The few grams extra of coating are compensated several time over as the ski skin hardly absorbs any water.

## Three questions to Vitus Schweizer, Head of R&D at Colltex ## **What do you consider to be the greatest challenge of this project?** Colltex Drybase is the next step in developing our future ski skins. With this «positive change of the product», we had to pay great attention to avoid any negative impact on the already optimized and good properties of the ski skins. **Did the changeover to Colltex Drybase work out for volume production?** The step from the sample phase to our large production machines is an exciting stage of development and often comes with surprises. With Colltex Drybase, we were able to successfully transfer the positive and encouraging results of the sampling phase to our large-scale production. **The advantages of Colltex Drybase include greatly reduced water absorption, an optimum chemical bonding to the adhesive and increased strength. What do you consider to be the most obvious advantage?** The low water absorption is certainly what most ski tourers hoped for. For me, it is equally exciting that the Colltex Drybase technology allows us to adjust the torsional strength and flexibility of the entire ski skin. Also highly interesting is the slight cushioning effect of the coating. The skin compensates even the smallest irregularities which, in turn, has a positive effect on gliding and climbing properties.