It’s a strong signal for curling in Germany: CeramTec is continuing its support of the German Curling Association (DCV) and will once again take over the title sponsorship of the German Masters 2015 in Hamburg. The development work started on the ceramic sliding surfaces for curling stones will also be continued: The first test stones underwent testing for a year at the National Training Center in Füssen where the basic functional capability was confirmed.

The last few weeks and months were not easy for the German Curling Association and German curling in general due to the announced cutting of federal funding. Bluntly put, the future of curling in Germany was in doubt. Nevertheless, CeramTec decided early on to send a signal and had already extended its sponsorship of the association, which began in 2013, ahead of schedule. So it’s all the more gratifying that all parties were able to reach consensus on how to continue the funding. Christian Klein, responsible for Sales & Marketing at CeramTec-ETEC GmbH, also emphasizes this:

“We had already told the association in the fall that we were going to continue our support in the coming season – regardless of the difficulties in securing funding for the sport. Of course, we welcome the fact that politics, the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) and the association were finally able to find a future-oriented way to collaborate. We would like to continue to take advantage of our capacity to innovate and proceed with the development work we started on ceramic sliding surfaces for curling stones. But we need a competitive sports approach to curling for this to work.”

Dieter Kolb, President of the DCV, is also relieved: “Thanks to the help of our partners from industry we succeeded in creating a forward-looking concept together with the DOSB. CeramTec’s continued commitment will enable us to follow this path.”

This means that development work will continue in collaboration with the association. The test stones underwent testing with CeramTec CERAMSLIDE ceramic sliding surfaces for a one year period at the National Training Center in Füssen where the basic functional capability was confirmed. It is now up to the Ceramic Experts to further optimize the grinding patterns of the sliding surfaces. “We will bring the stones back to our plant in Lohmar and experiment with grinding profiles. We are optimistic that we will have found the best grinding profile by the end of the season so that the stones perform as expected on different types of ice,” says Christian Klein. “We are excited about continuing the work we began together with those responsible at the DCV and have set specific goals for the future that will benefit both parties.”

This is not the first time the CeramTec ceramic experts has played a key role in promoting winter sports. CeramTec-ETEC also manufactured ALOSLIDE® ceramic inrun tracks for a number of international ski jumps – including the ones in Bischofshofen, Klingenthal and more recently for the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.