The Challenge
Nothing tests the limits of steel more than extreme temperatures as well as constant bending and flexing. For years, steel was used in snowmobile tracks and eventually that same material would break. Not a great thing to happen to a snowmobile driver doing 150mph in the wilderness, miles from anywhere. Composites were tried but they were sub-standard and fared little better. What our client needed was a GFRP solution with the ability to flex and bend back to shape when under extreme strain.
Our Solution
At Pultron, the team came up with the answer – a D-shaped composite rod with a unique resin formulation to deliver ultra-high shear and extremely high flex and fatigue, while incorporating a specialized fine end-bevel finish. Suddenly our client had snowmobile tracks with increased durability and reduced maintenance requirements, plus they ran faster and were quieter – a better user experience for the end user by far. Our new finishing technology, which we developed specifically for this project, even allowed for mass production at low cost.