To fulfill her required senior project at Colville High School, Elise Loggers teamed with a Spokane ski maker to build custom skis using fiberglass materials.
Elise learned to apply the fiberglass materials in order to produce the ideal ski to match her size and style. According to Elise, “Making skis is like making a cake with layers”.Instead of adding plastic sidewalls that give skis a “finished”look, this technique extends the core to the edge of the ski and seals it with urethane, a composite material. This keeps the ski more torsionally stiff through the center with no weak spots. The fiberglass company operated the machinery that compressed the layers they had prepared into a mold that formed the camber and upturned tips.
The result: a fat ski that incorporates the latest design and technology. The skis are stable and have total wood cores without the metal that we find in mass-manufactured skis. “I feel more stable and don’t catch random edges. They’re really fun to ski.”
Source article: Tri City Herald
Source photo: Spokesman.com
Surfing originated in Hawaii in the 18th century. The first surfboards were made of wood and weighted around 45 kilos. Nowadays, the worldwide preferred material for surfboards is lightweight fiberglass composite material.
From the 1940’s onwards, fiberglass composite material has became the most popular material for surfboards, thereby replacing wood. The transition to fiberglass materials as a principal material for surfboards, has brought some important improvements. Among the most prominent advantages are the reduction in weight, waterproofing and strength.
Source: AllaboutSurfboards.com
Image: Wikipedia
The initiative is part of the GuitarTown Project. This project placed numerous composite material guitar sculptures in other cities already, like Los Angeles Nashville and London. Each time the fiberglass instruments were painted by artists, signed by celebrities and auctioned off for charity.
The guitars are 3 meters high and due to the lightweight characteristics of the fiberglass materials, they only weigh 23 kilos.
Source: JsOnline.com
Source Image: JsOnline.com
Why did the turtle cross the road? It was a roadside accident from a children`s comic book but with near deadly consequences. “Scorch” a young box turtle, had been crossing the road when he was hit by an oncoming car. When discovered the turtle was badly injured in the incident and had been attacked by dogs. However, the turtle has been given a new lease on life thanks to a local police officer, a clever vet and a new fiberglass shell.
The vet fashioned a new fiberglass shell for Scorch which, he says, will eventually be pushed off after he develops his own new shell. Scorch has been given a new home with a local teenage and the vet says he will live for another 40 years thanks in no small part his fiberglass shell. Get well soon Scorch from everyone at Parabeam!!
Source: USA Today
Picture: Fine Art America
Building any musical instrument by hand is a difficult process. Therefore the achievement of Ken Brown is all the more impressive because as a novice, he made this amazing carbon fiber violin on his own.
Taking him over 10 months, each Sunday Ken made detailed drawings of the violin. His plans were translated into plaster and fiberglass molds. It took him many hours of painstaking work to produce the best sounding violin plates. When he started fabricating the carbon fiber violin plates, Ken tested each revision’s “tap tones” until he go the right sound. Now we can enjoy Ken`s work and the sound of fiberglass composite material!
Source: blog Fiberglast
picture: Fiberglast
Fiberglass news racks are becoming part of the street view in Manhattan. The Madison Avenue Business Improvement District ordered fiberglass racks 74″ wide, 40″ tall and 24″ deep. This award winning design by Karim Rashid, industrial designer known for his innovative and elegant concepts, adds a touch of elegance to New York`s streets.
These new fiberglass newsracks mean that the structural steel framework, normally required for street-side mounting, can be removed. Clutter along the sidewalk will be reduced and replaced by multiple, existing newspaper and magazine racks. Thanks to the fiberglass composite material these racks have a contemporary, elegant, yet functional design.
Source: Arrowheadinc
picture: Arrowheadinc
