Duotone NOW Magazine No.03 2022

ANTONIO DESTINO: These diagrams show the strain values in warp, fill and bias directions. In order to make it easy to understand, in this examplary diagramwe only consider the range up to 1000N (Y-coordinate). For the standard Dacron , we see that the material is very homogeneous in warp and fill directions (therefore only one dotted line for both vaules), stretching in the range of 50mm, at 1000N tensile force. Below we see the diagonal or bias elongation (the solid white curve) which means that the material is much softer in bias, and generally not so different from Aluula and Penta TX. With Penta TX , the material stretches only 25–30mm at 1000N tensile force in warp and fill, which means that the material has a very high stiffness. And looking at Aluula , this material only stretches between 8 and 10mm at 1000N pull in warp and fill. This is even stiffer than Penta TX, as already mentioned by Ken before. These parameters, combined with the bias elongation, and additionally used in combination with other fabrics, have a significant influence on flight characteristics of the kite. The art and also the challenge for our kite designers is to use all these factors in a targeted manner. Weights Duotone Neo 10m Original 3,0kg SLS 2,8kg D/LAB 2,5kg KENWINNER: Aluula, which we are currently using in our D/LAB kites, has stretch that is not so different from standard Dacron. However, Aluula is roughly twice as stiff and has massively more torsional stiffness than Dacron when inflated. We spent over a year and built a few dozen prototypes learning how to deal with the various differences from Dacron. ANTONIO DESTINO: 55%more labour time goes into a D/LAB kite during production. This has to do in particular with the processing and construction of the material and the seams. On the one hand, the cutting of the material cannot be automated, and on the other hand, the seam constructions are completely different from the Duotone Original or SLS kites. The preparation and processing takes much more time. This together with six times higher material price, explains the higher market price for the kite. 8 ELONGATION IN MM ALUULA 100 PENTA TX KENWINNER: A lighter, stronger canopy material would be nice. The currently-available Cuben Fiber that we experimented with a number of years ago is lighter and stronger than polyester ripstop that everyone uses now, but it lacks the dimensional stability we need and is extremely expensive. We’re working on a similar material and hope to knowmore about its prospects in 2022. RALF GRÖSEL: The question is relatively easy to answer with a clear yes. After all, we are also working on different materials for the future that can be used in different areas. It’s not always just about light, but also about other technical properties such as: stronger, less stretch, more stretch. Kite development is always the sum of all individual factors. Just changing one material in the kite will never make a model perform better. It is always the sum of the different variables, such as seam construction, manufacturing technology, that lead to the realization of different properties in a kite. DO YOUWISH FOR EVENMORE INNOVATIVE MATERIALS, SO THAT YOU CAN IMPLEMENT OTHER KITE DESIGNS? Photo  Lukas K. Stiller Photo  Craig Kolesky 100 FORCE IN N 1000 DACRON FORCE IN N 1000 FORCE IN N 1000 96 D R I V I N G F U T U R E I N N O V A T I O N S WARP / FILL ELONGATION BIAS ELONGATION 50 25 100 ELONGATION IN MM ELONGATION IN MM HOW DIFFICULT WAS IT TO IMPLEMENT ALUULA IN THE DUOTONE D / LAB KITES? S C I E N C E O F F A B R I C S