22.01.2010
Safer and Faster Skiing!
In future, safer and faster skiing will be possible due to researchers from Baden-Württemberg (© Daniel Stricker/Pixelio)
Researchers working in Stuttgart have developed a new airbag system for skiers. The new system should significantly improve the survival chances of avalanche victims in the future. An electronic system developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) ensures that an airbag carried by someone caught in an avalanche can be activated by fellow skiers up to 500 metres away from the victim.
Avalanche airbags, which skiers can stow away in special backpacks, have been available on the market for 25 years now. Up to now skiers have had to trigger their airbags themselves in an emergency situation. However, this is not always possible if a skier is caught unaware by an avalanche. The newly developed electronic solution enables other members of a skiing party to initiate airbag inflation remotely and to ensure that the hapless skier is given additional buoyancy when caught in a slab avalanche and has much better chances of survival as a result. The new system also reduces the risk of injury. According to the IPA, 98 per cent of skiers equipped with an airbag have survived an avalanche accident to date, 90 per cent of them without sustaining any injuries. The new airbag system was designed for ABS Peter Aschauer, GmbH and can also be retrofitted in older avalanche airbag systems.
Fraunhofer Institutes in Baden-Württemberg are not only working on improving skiing safety, they are also helping skiers to pick up even more speed on the slopes. The still evolving Microtrobilogy Center in Karlsruhe is currently working with Holmenkoll and other business partners on superfast wax and ski coatings. The researchers have developed new ways of measuring the friction and gliding behaviour of skis in different snow conditions and at various temperatures. The new institute in Karlsruhe has been jointly set up by the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials (IWM) in Freiburg and the University of Karlsruhe.
