Surfboard fins molded in Switzerland sell to the global market

Switzerland can hardly be described as an ideal location for developments in surfboard applications, since it is a landlocked country, far from prime marine surfing locations and a high wage-cost economy.

But that didn't prevent Rapperswil, Switzerland-based IWK institute for materials technology and plastics processing at OST Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences from developing high-performance, carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic composite surfboard fins, which are now sold to surfing equipment suppliers throughout the world.

IWK developed the fins with Buchs, Switzerland-based molder Kunststoffwerk AG Buchs' "Svismold." The company produces the new H4 fins on a tie-barless injection molding machine from Engel Austria GmbH, equipped with a Kuka articulated robot, for the Newport, Australia-based company FCS Fin Control Systems Pty Ltd.

Key to cost-effective production is a fully automated injection molding process with the Kuka robot laying two ultrathin 0.2-millimeter unidirectional carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic tapes into the mold for molding onto the H4 fin's injection molded thermoplastic frame, as well as removing the finished moldings from the mold.

The process is economically justified, having replaced laborious tape-reinforced fins made by hand. And there is greater supply chain reliability with production closer to the European market and Svismold determination to source materials from European suppliers, as far as possible.

H4 fin project leader Gion Andrea Barandun heads the IWK fiber-reinforced composites and lightweight construction department and says the fully automatic process has fewer errors than with Asian manual production, ensured with integrated of camera-based part inspection.

Svismold Managing Director Martin Rudolph says of the development that as FCS "demanded more consistent quality and higher precision than achievable in manual production, our goal was a fully automatically manufactured high-tech product."

The FCS H4 fin is a high-end, premium-priced product that is available in three sizes, with its carbon-fiber tape reinforcement resulting in higher stability, predictability and control at high surfing speeds, due to the H4 fin being four to five times stiffer than unreinforced plastic fins.

It means "absolute efficiency," so surfers can "apply more of their energy into each and every turn when it is initiated, the H4 fin supplying speed when needed and releasing it at the ideal transition point," FCS says.

Fin properties can be easily adapted to a range of individual needs by making adjustments to the tapes, Svismold's Rudolph points out, FCS referring here to tuning of how the fin bends and twists around the surfboard body. Surfboards typically use several such fins in central and side locations.

FCS Australia says that the H4 fin project would be impossible without Svismold support, with its "outstanding ability to turn our original idea into a quality and innovative end product."

Mike Durante, global product head at FCS, described the decision to work with a Swiss company as "pretty radical." He says H4 development was part of the FCS innovation platform for the next benchmark in technology.

The H4 brief was to create a fin-enhancing surfing experience by giving feedback, anticipating the surfer's next move and giving as much speed as possible, with a fine level of control — "the more energy you give, the more it gives back."

Lead product designer Nick Notara adds that the carbon-fiber tape keeps the base of the fins very rigid, so they feel responsive and also translate the driving force into speed, while the tips are able to rotate, "which translates to the surfer being able to control the speed."