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Lost foil - broke off while riding

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matt_81a
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Lost foil - broke off while riding

Postby matt_81a » Fri Jul 29, 2016 10:55 am

Lost foil - broke off while riding

Alpine Foil Access 5.0 - mast broke at the top by the board; 3 months old foil.
In the middle of riding,deep water - needless to say that the foil is lost:(
The stub leftover in the box looks like it was in a war zone - cracks everywhere.

Did anybody experience anything similar?
Shocking...

Matt
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Rufusz
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Re: Lost foil - broke off while riding

Postby Rufusz » Fri Jul 29, 2016 11:25 am

Holy shit! No damage on the board or the box??? :o

matt_81a
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Re: Lost foil - broke off while riding

Postby matt_81a » Fri Jul 29, 2016 11:37 am

Nothing. The box has a few marks on top where the mast exits but that's it.
Looks to me like it snapped off sideways..

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Re: Lost foil - broke off while riding

Postby Johhnn » Fri Jul 29, 2016 11:52 am

Did you contact Damian? I'm sure he will take care of this.

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Re: Lost foil - broke off while riding

Postby borist » Fri Jul 29, 2016 7:30 pm

Wow, I'm no metallurgist, but it looks to me like a bad Alu extrusion or a huge impact

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Re: Lost foil - broke off while riding

Postby havasubob » Fri Jul 29, 2016 10:09 pm

Borist,
I collaborated with my engineer colleagues and we think this forensic analysis fits pretty well (see attachments)

Fracture A likely happened initially (due to some minimal sidewall thickness in the aluminum mast at the barrel nut and adjacent fault line) Also note the symmetry of the fracture on either side.

Fracture B was the secondary fail due to bending forces on a weakened plane along the bottom of the board (the Delrin mast head probably constrained the mast in the box until the shear was fully complete)

Had you not lost your rig to Davy Jones you could have cut the mast down by a few inches, machined again for new fasteners, and been back in business. But since I see similar symptoms on my mast I'll post a few modifications for other AF 5.0 riders in the next few days.

Again, I'm so sorry to see this misfortune....
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slingshotucf
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Re: Lost foil - broke off while riding

Postby slingshotucf » Sat Jul 30, 2016 12:08 am

I've fixed a few of these. Horrible design. First of all it's only one M6 bolt from the shim to the center of the board. The mask is connected with two bolts to a plastic shim but it should be the other way around. Next issue is if you look at the top of the mask, they made it flat on the sides that go into the shim which kills the original arch of the foil design making for a weak point. All people know an arch is super strong and once this flat part is put into it, that makes the breaking point and it shears away.

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Re: Lost foil - broke off while riding

Postby foilonfoil » Sat Jul 30, 2016 1:31 am

Saltwater, Aluminim with a little stainless steel thrown in are the worst combination. Parts need to be inspected regularly and ideally rinsed with fresh water often. TefGel or related galvanic inhibitors are a musty or all bolts.

By the amount of corrosion evident, probably about 6 months of ongoing detioration before the failure.

That being said, I know there is a slow migration from single bolt capture to two bolt capture in Alpines products.

A sad ending but a reminder for all Aluminium foil owners to rinse and review often.

matt_81a
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Re: Lost foil - broke off while riding

Postby matt_81a » Sat Jul 30, 2016 2:46 am

Johhnn wrote:Did you contact Damian? I'm sure he will take care of this.
Yes indeed I contacted Damien and I thought as well he would for sure take care of it. However…
I posted the same photos on the Alpine Foil Riders FB page where he commented that I have been riding to close to the shore and must have been hitting the bottom so many times and the foil finally failed. After that he changed his mind about the post and simply deleted the post and me from the FB group.
I wouldn’t even know about it, but got an email notification of it (with screenshot).

In no instance whatsoever was he in any way interested about the root cause of the failure, instead insisting that his product is great and it must be my fault.
What kind of foil lasts for 3 months and deteriorates away?
My setup has been daily rinsed after use and all screws had tefgel on them. I can only imagine that water accumulates in the mast and causes this, together with the design as mentioned by slingshotucf.
Even taking the foil apart daily would not aid in noticing this flaw, as the KF box would need to be taken apart as well – not something that I would have thought necessary, nor seen anywhere mentioned.
Davy Jones has the foil as a trophy now, cannot find it to show that the foil itself has never had a hit, not a single scratch.

After back and forth communication, he offered to replace the mast if I manage to find the lost foil or offer a new aluminum foil for EUR635.00 ($710) shipped. Pretty expensive for an inferior product that has already failed once – don’t want it to happen again.
I received the foil April 20th – it lasted 3 months…

Cheers,

Matt

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Re: Lost foil - broke off while riding

Postby havasubob » Sat Jul 30, 2016 5:45 am

Slingshotucf, excellent point about the transition edge between the flattened mast and the curved profile. You can see from the post how the fracture follows that edge for a couple inches. I'll be sharing a few "improvements" here but I'd like to hear more about your repair suggestions. For the moment, I'm going to fill the voids in the extrusion near the barrel nut with JB Weld for add'l pull-out resistance. I hope that suspends some of the corrosion issues in the connection area as well. I'm also going to upgrade the safety leash, and pass a cable thru the mast directly rather than a loop around the Delrin head. It won't be pretty but it's better than losing the whole kit on the bottom. Cheers-Bob
Last edited by havasubob on Sat Jul 30, 2016 4:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.


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