Altair Case Studies Empire and Renishaw: Revolutionizing Bicycle Manufacturing with 3D Printing

	Empire and Renishaw: Revolutionizing Bicycle Manufacturing with 3D Printing Altair

Empire and Renishaw: Revolutionizing Bicycle Manufacturing with 3D Printing

Altair

Technology Category	Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)
Applicable Industries	Aerospace Electronics
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Additive Manufacturing Rapid Prototyping
Services	Testing & Certification
Challenge	Empire Cycles, in collaboration with Renishaw, aimed to design and manufacture the world's first metal 3D printed bicycle frame. The challenge was to leverage the freedom of additive manufacturing to create a bicycle frame that was not only innovative but also surpassed existing standards in terms of weight and strength. Chris Williams from Empire Cycles had been using Additive Manufacturing components in production for many years, but wanted the opportunity to test it out on a full bicycle product. The team at Renishaw thought that a standard simple part of the bicycle like the seat post would be the best fit for additive manufacturing and weight reduction, as this is a known entity and simple enough to validate and test. Read More
About Customer	Renishaw is a world leader in engineering technologies, with a strong history of innovation in product development and manufacturing. Since its formation in 1973, the company has supplied leading-edge products that increase process productivity, improve product quality and deliver cost-effective automation solutions. Renishaw's laser melting process is an emerging manufacturing technology with a presence in the medical industry, as well as the aerospace and high technology engineering and electronics sectors. Laser melting is a digitally driven additive manufacturing process that uses focused laser energy to fuse metallic powders into 3D objects. Read More
Solution	The solution involved a process incorporating the concept generation of solidThinking Inspire and Renishaw’s Additive manufacturing technology. The original CAD data was imported into Inspire, and retaining bolts and the seat post were modeled. This enabled the retaining bolts to be fixed and acting forces applied to the end of the seat post. The part was defeatured to maximize the design space, allowing Inspire maximum design freedom. The ideal part shape was then generated using Inspire. A second iteration was carried out using a smaller design space to further refine the shape. The new material layout generated by Inspire provided a concept that not only met the performance targets but was also lighter than the original. Chris then took this model and used his own design know-how to generate suitable geometry around the concept for additive manufacturing. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)

Applicable Industries

Aerospace

Electronics

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Additive Manufacturing

Rapid Prototyping

Services

Testing & Certification

Challenge

Empire Cycles, in collaboration with Renishaw, aimed to design and manufacture the world's first metal 3D printed bicycle frame. The challenge was to leverage the freedom of additive manufacturing to create a bicycle frame that was not only innovative but also surpassed existing standards in terms of weight and strength. Chris Williams from Empire Cycles had been using Additive Manufacturing components in production for many years, but wanted the opportunity to test it out on a full bicycle product. The team at Renishaw thought that a standard simple part of the bicycle like the seat post would be the best fit for additive manufacturing and weight reduction, as this is a known entity and simple enough to validate and test.

About Customer

Renishaw is a world leader in engineering technologies, with a strong history of innovation in product development and manufacturing. Since its formation in 1973, the company has supplied leading-edge products that increase process productivity, improve product quality and deliver cost-effective automation solutions. Renishaw's laser melting process is an emerging manufacturing technology with a presence in the medical industry, as well as the aerospace and high technology engineering and electronics sectors. Laser melting is a digitally driven additive manufacturing process that uses focused laser energy to fuse metallic powders into 3D objects.

Solution

The solution involved a process incorporating the concept generation of solidThinking Inspire and Renishaw’s Additive manufacturing technology. The original CAD data was imported into Inspire, and retaining bolts and the seat post were modeled. This enabled the retaining bolts to be fixed and acting forces applied to the end of the seat post. The part was defeatured to maximize the design space, allowing Inspire maximum design freedom. The ideal part shape was then generated using Inspire. A second iteration was carried out using a smaller design space to further refine the shape. The new material layout generated by Inspire provided a concept that not only met the performance targets but was also lighter than the original. Chris then took this model and used his own design know-how to generate suitable geometry around the concept for additive manufacturing.

Impact #1	The collaboration between Empire Cycles and Renishaw resulted in the creation of a bicycle that exceeded testing standards. The Inspire influenced seat post bracket has already been tested to the British Standards, which includes exerting 1,200 newtons applied and released for 50,000 cycles at no more than 25 hertz. The benefits of the interaction between solidThinking Inspire and additive manufacturing are clear. Inspire offers the best way to create load driven structures and enables the industry to unlock the enormous lightweight design potential related to use of additive manufactured structures.

Impact #1

The collaboration between Empire Cycles and Renishaw resulted in the creation of a bicycle that exceeded testing standards. The Inspire influenced seat post bracket has already been tested to the British Standards, which includes exerting 1,200 newtons applied and released for 50,000 cycles at no more than 25 hertz. The benefits of the interaction between solidThinking Inspire and additive manufacturing are clear. Inspire offers the best way to create load driven structures and enables the industry to unlock the enormous lightweight design potential related to use of additive manufactured structures.

Benefit #1	44% weight reduction in the bicycle’s seat post when using Inspire for concept generation.
Benefit #2	Additive manufacturing and design contributed to overall weight reduction of 33%.
Benefit #3	The seat post bracket weight was reduced from 360 grams to 200 grams.

Benefit #1

44% weight reduction in the bicycle’s seat post when using Inspire for concept generation.

Benefit #2

Additive manufacturing and design contributed to overall weight reduction of 33%.

Benefit #3

The seat post bracket weight was reduced from 360 grams to 200 grams.

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Overview

Empire and Renishaw: Revolutionizing Bicycle Manufacturing with 3D Printing

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit