Rossignol develops its operations

Transcription

1 Rossignol develops its operations

2 1956 Laurent Bois-Vives took charge of Skis Rossignol in He straight away decided to focus solely on ski production and was set to give the company an international dimension. It was the end of an era for of a certain type of craftsmanship to be progressively replaced by industrial scale production for a The metal ski, a technological transition Metal, strong and available in thin sheets, grabbed the attention of ski manufacturers early on. The first metal skis date from the 30s, but the war and problems with wood/ metal assembly put a stop to any developments. They were re-launched by an American in Aviation engineer Howard Head used his expertise in bonding processes to construct a ski with a plywood core and two strips of metal either side, a version of the sandwich design used in aircraft. Head s skis were very slim, supple under flexion, rigid under torsion and handled exceptionally well on virgin snow. In France Charles Dieupart produced a ski that used a metal cover strip and began to make quite a name for himself, although distribution was limited. In Switzerland, Attenhoffer brought in a moderately successful ski with a wooden core and a ribbed metal support. Metal ski technology was therefore the focus of ski research and production for around 10 years. But despite its qualities, the metal ski was slow to take off. It was competition success that gave it the boost it needed. In 1960, Jean VUARNET won the Downhill in the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics, wearing Rossignol s celebrated Allais 60 skis. But on the heels of this merited success the plastic ski was already emerging. Technology was developing at astonishing speed. So, in innovation terms, metal skis can be viewed as intermediaries, merely a bridge between laminated plywood and the fiberglass and laminate resin products that started a whole new era The leather boot makes strides In August 57, under a French patent, the Austrian company Koflach produced a ski boot with an inner lining that held the foot firmly in place by means of a lacing system separate from the main boot lacing. This design was the forerunner of the technique of using an inner liner separate from the shell, which was to become widespread in the 70s. At the same time a second lacing system at the rear was introduced on the boot itself to make it easier to put on and improve heel grip. Head and Attenhoffer Skis

3 The Allais 60 The launch of Head metal skis in the US was of immense interest to Emile ALLAIS. Convinced of their potential, he brought back several pairs to France and together with Rossignol worked on improving their good features and ironing out weaknesses. And in 1952 the Voiron company patented a ski comprising an assembly of at least two aluminum alloy blades around a filler. Whilst Head skis were leisure based, Emile Allais and Rossignol had produced a competition ski that performed exceptionally well on hard snow. They worked on the wood-metal sandwich construction, made adjustments to the ski s rigidity under flexion and refined the sidecuts. The ski s rigidity under torsion meant that racers could now execute those wide radius turns (carving turns) that inspired a whole new competition event: the giant slalom. Extremely stable on big turns, the ski was perfectly suited for downhill. French champion Jean VUARNET invented the new «search for speed» position. His gold medal in the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Olympics Downhill brought worldwide recognition for both the «Egg» technique and his Allais 60s... Allais 60 skis starred in international competitions over many seasons. They were around for approximately 10 years and helped improve understanding of shear stress at material interfaces during flexional moment on the ski s structure. Emile ALLAIS - a force for change «I met Howard Head in the States when I was training the Canadian team. He asked me to try out some metal skis he had developed. Those skis handled very nicely in soft snow and powder but were totally unsuited to hard snow because they had no edges or base. They didn t perform well enough for use in competitions. When I got back to France, based on Head s idea, I designed together with Rossignol the first metal ski, the Métallais, which had screwed-on edges and a graphite-coated plastic base. That was the ski that led to the Allais 60. «Allais 60s were the forerunners of today s skis; they featured hidden edges and a polyethylene base. When they came out they were technically at least two years ahead of competitors. These skis were way above the wood skis still used at the time, especially in terms of grip on snow. They gave the French Team a decisive advantage as shown by Jean Vuarnet s victory at Squaw Valley. The Austrians were greatly envious. Emile Allais Emile Allais and Adrien Duvillard The public first became aware of the Allais 60 when Jean Vuarnet won gold in the Squaw Valley Winter Olympics Downhill in This prestigious ski opened a whole new era in competition ski technology. It was closely associated with the great French team s epic victories in the sixties. Adrien DUVILLARD Winner of the great classics In the course of his career Adrien Duvillard won nearly all the great downhill and combined classics. He used various skis, each representative of their era: The Olympic 41, the Allais 60, the Fiberglass and the Strato. For Adrien «the most innovative ski was without doubt the Allais 60. Its performance was so totally different from what was around then. It was very fast; a great example of unanticipated product improvement. It was only afterwards that we noticed that, over and above all its other qualities, this ski was incredibly fast.»

4 Fiberglass opens a new era By the early 60s technology had developed and it became possible to extrude glass into fibers to make what is commonly called fiberglass and then add a protective coating. At the same time the chemical industry was developing fiber impregnated resins. The two products together led to the invention of fiberglass laminate. Fiberglass was easy to use and offered an extremely wide range of potential applications in all fields. Its high limit of elasticity and relative lightness immediately caught the attention of the ski industry. With the possibility of countless combinations with other high tech synthetic fibers to be developed later, fiberglass was the perfect candidate for experimental research. This quality stimulated the creativity of researchers. Various French and other ski manufacturers took out patents to protect applications and use of this new material. For example Fischer (Austria), Rossignol, Michal and Straver (France) all took out patents for this around Claude Joseph An idea for a new ski The ski boot locking lever Standard fastening for laced ski boots was not very effective and led to the search for a better performing device. The strap tensioning buckle (or hook or lever) made its debut on Henke leather boots and the Hans Martin patent was published in Switzerland. Competitors were quick to improve on the technique (especially Raichle) by adding various options for adjusting the tension. In 1963 Rieker came up with the idea of putting the buckles on the outside and side of a boot that opened and did up at the back. The all leather boot changed too over the next few years with the use of plastic coated leather to give more rigidity and improve water-tightness. The Compound ski «In 1955 I was running a small plastics business and a friend and I had the idea of using new materials like polyester to make skis. The basic idea was that these materials would have to be much more watertight than wood. After numerous attempts we finally produced a fiber «ski preform» and presented it during the Grenoble Show. Knowing nothing about ski manufacture techniques, the link made with Paul Michal helped us make real progress in developing the product. From his technical knowledge about skiing and my knowledge of synthetic materials came the Compound or the fiberglass ski.

5 Fiberglass technology At the same time as the metal Allais 60s were making their debut, Swiss engineer Gaston Haldemann took out several patents for a hollow core ski, the development of which led to the fiberglass ski. The idea was achievable because high performance resins had hit the market along with woven glass fabric, heat treated and chemically treated to make it suitable for bonding. Rossignol produced this type of ski for more than fifteen years, firstly in Voiron from 1960 and then in its Swiss subsidiary. Adopted by many champions, including the Swiss team, the fiberglass ski was a hit on the podiums at the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics in Japan, in the men s downhill with Bernard Russi and the ladies downhill and giant slalom with Marie Thérèse Nadig. Sadly, despite the great qualities of the Equipe model, and later the Saltos, fantastically versatile skis, the production cost of fiberglass rocketed. The emergence of new materials such Adrien Duvillard and the Fiberglass as low density polyurethane foam and higher performance industrial processes led to a gradual decline in the use of fiberglass. Adrien Duvillard a champion dedicated to ski products Adrien Duvillard joined Rossignol s research & development team in 1958 when he was still a downhill racer. Having worked on the Allais 60 with Emile Allais, Adrien Duvillard was also involved with Gaston Haldemann Fiberglass. This ski had excellent competition results, especially for the Swiss team; unfortunately it turned out to be difficult to manufacture on an industrial scale. However, the era of the fiberglass ski had begun. And it was soon realized with the development of a composite material ski: the Strato. At this time Maurice Woehrle joined the Research department. The Equipe Suisse

6 1965. The Strato People still talk about the «Strato era» today. This phenomenally successful ski was launched in 1965 and offered unprecedented performance thanks to its technical construction combining layers of fiber glass with a wood core. Generations of champions gained an array of victories on this ski. Marketed until 1975, it was the first ski to top the one million pairs sold mark. When Strato skis first came out they had a strong presence in the 1966 Portillo World Championships in Chile, with Annie Famose in particular a devotee, and also in the 1968 Winter Olympics at Grenoble (1968) and the slalom at Sapporo in Jean-Claude Killy and Nancy Greene The Strato Annie Famose Section from the Strato Nancy Green 10 wins in a row to launch the Strato «I tried out a pair of Stratos for the first time five days before the 1966 World Championships. I loved those skis, thought they were fantastic, experienced sensations I had never had before on metal skis. But I didn t dare change my skis just five days before a big competition. When the winter season in Europe started I only took Stratos with me. I won the first event in that season s World Cup even though the conditions weren t good. That race was the first of a series of 10 wins throughout the season, on the same pair of skis!

7 Dynastar Omega Skis Formed in the 60s from a merger of DYNamic and STARflex, a subsidiary of Les Ressorts du Nord, Dynastar took out a French patent in 1964 for a process of reinforcing the ski s core with a metal sheet in the shape of the Greek letter of the alphabet Omega. This technique, still used by this leading French brand, improved rigidity of the ski s extremities under torsion and gave it very high gripping power. By combining high performance fibers (fiberglass and more recently carbon fiber, Kevlar, Dyneema, etc.) with light cellular materials such as acrylics or polyurethane, the technique produced excellent results both for competition alpine skis and more specialized skis such as for mogul events, crosscountry combined, expeditions, etc. Significant victories by the Goitschel sisters and Guy PERILLAT accompanied the launch of Omega skis. And today they are more popular than ever. Omega skis are used by of some of the greatest skiers in the world, such as Marc Girardelli (Luxembourg), the only five time World Cup winner and Kjetil André Aamodt, Norwegian triple World Champion Dynastar skis have been part of the Rossignol Group since Marc Girardelli and Kjetil André Aamodt Jean Liard on creating the MV2 with Omega construction Section from OMEGA structure «The Aluflex, invented in the late 40s and developed by James Couttet, was our working base. In collaboration with Claude Joseph we had the idea of gluing a metal plate on the top of the Aluflex which had an Omega shape, so giving it a rectangular form. We also made use of synthetic materials to improve this new ski s performance. So, thanks to Omega technology, we were able to modify the flexibility distribution in this way relatively easily. And so the MV2 was born, and was quick to prove itself thanks to racers like Guy Périllat and Marielle Goitschel.» Omega technology is still one of Dynastar s most significant features today. Guy Perillat

8 1965. The torsion box When Rossignol presented its Strato sandwich ski, Dynamic (formed from the word DYNAmometer, a machine for measuring forces and moments of skis, and its founder Paul MIChal) was exploring another technological avenue: the torsion box. This type of ski comprised a casing of several layers of resin coated textile glass around a central core, so forming a watertight box called: the «torsion box». The main advantage of this type of ski was its very high rigidity under torsion, its excellent edging and its performance on ice. Christened the VR7, and then the VR 17, this ski was to be the great rival of Rossignol s Strato for several years, with many racers using both depending on circumstances. And Jean Claude Killy became triple Olympic Champion at Grenoble in 1968 on a torsion box ski. For the record Jean Claude Killy chose Rossignol skis for the 1972/73 season for their state of the art technology (model ROC 55), and on which he won the Professional World Championship title in Launch of the «shell» ski Section from a torsion box ski (Dynamic VR 17) In January 1966 Michal at Dynamic skis patented the invention of a ski mainly noteworthy for its upper section comprising «a synthetic shell with a downward facing U-shaped cross section». This shell ski technology didn t work out commercially for Dynamic skis as the torsion box structure was much preferred, a choice borne out by competition results The all plastic ski boot The arrival of plastics revolutionized the ski boot too. Using plastic gave much better rigidity. The key invention in this area was the work of American Bob Lange. In 1965 he developed the first boot to have a plastic outer shell and inner liner. All manufacturers adopted this technology. Over the next few years the use of thermoplastics meant that ski boot volumes and design kept apace with technical developments in skis. From 1965 onwards Lange s success was never in doubt. Very many champions from all countries, such as Marc Girardelli (Luxembourg), Carole Merle (France) and Alberto Tomba (Italy) made his invention famous Lange, Nordica, le trappeur boots At the Alpine Ski Championships in Portillo, Killy, Perillat and Goitschel were all up there on the podiums. Dynastar had a front row seat. As did Lange, the boot that was to remain in the limelight for several years, and win the most medals at Nagano Rossignol took over Skis Dynastar S.A (Haute-Savoie) Rossignol became the world s leading producer of plastic skis, with the support of a second production unit established at Saint-Etienne-de-Crossey (Isère) in At this time the Company was also establishing commercial subsidiaries in other countries (Germany, Switzerland) and production units too (Italy) The Lange Group joined forces with Rossignol. Launch of the first Rossignol brand ski boots on the international scene. 10