Altair Case Studies Guerrilla Gravity Revolutionizes Bike Manufacturing with IoT

	Guerrilla Gravity Revolutionizes Bike Manufacturing with IoT Altair

Guerrilla Gravity Revolutionizes Bike Manufacturing with IoT

Altair

Technology Category	Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) Networks & Connectivity - Ethernet
Applicable Industries	Cement Life Sciences
Applicable Functions	Product Research & Development Quality Assurance
Use Cases	Additive Manufacturing Manufacturing Process Simulation
Services	Testing & Certification
Challenge	Guerrilla Gravity, a mountain bike manufacturing company based in Denver, Colorado, faced a significant challenge in pioneering a new material application and technology without a roadmap. The company was experiencing rising demands and needed to meet schedule and production challenges. The launch of their innovative Revved Carbon Technology, which combines a new bike frame material and a new patent-pending manufacturing method, brought an additional set of challenges. The company had to scale production with increased demand, which was doubling year after year. The introduction of the new technology also posed the risk of unknown problems arising, putting launch schedules in jeopardy. Read More
About Customer	Guerrilla Gravity is a mountain bike manufacturing company based in Denver, Colorado. The company is committed to significantly improving mountain biking by building a community advocating for trail access, and creating innovative mountain bikes at democratized price points. Their most recent innovation is the Revved Carbon Technology, which represents a compelling combination of durable bikes that are also lightweight and high performance. The technology combines a new bike frame material and a new patent-pending manufacturing method, resulting in bikes that are 300% more impact resistant than other frames on the market that use traditional carbon fiber materials, while maintaining equivalent weight and stiffness properties. Read More
Solution	Guerrilla Gravity turned to Altair's OptiStruct in the early design phase to enable a much more concise, high-performance solution. OptiStruct allowed Guerrilla Gravity to jump to a high-performance solution much quicker than a common iterative FEA process. The topology optimization capabilities allowed the designers to run multiple load cases and evaluate exactly where the plies were needed in the frame. This knowledge early on enabled Guerrilla Gravity to make critical decisions that influenced expensive manufacturing outcomes. Additionally, OptiStruct allowed the team to gain significant confidence going into physical testing; knowing that the frames had a high likelihood of passing the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards on the first try. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Functional Applications - Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES)

Networks & Connectivity - Ethernet

Applicable Industries

Cement

Life Sciences

Applicable Functions

Product Research & Development

Quality Assurance

Use Cases

Additive Manufacturing

Manufacturing Process Simulation

Services

Testing & Certification

Challenge

Guerrilla Gravity, a mountain bike manufacturing company based in Denver, Colorado, faced a significant challenge in pioneering a new material application and technology without a roadmap. The company was experiencing rising demands and needed to meet schedule and production challenges. The launch of their innovative Revved Carbon Technology, which combines a new bike frame material and a new patent-pending manufacturing method, brought an additional set of challenges. The company had to scale production with increased demand, which was doubling year after year. The introduction of the new technology also posed the risk of unknown problems arising, putting launch schedules in jeopardy.

About Customer

Guerrilla Gravity is a mountain bike manufacturing company based in Denver, Colorado. The company is committed to significantly improving mountain biking by building a community advocating for trail access, and creating innovative mountain bikes at democratized price points. Their most recent innovation is the Revved Carbon Technology, which represents a compelling combination of durable bikes that are also lightweight and high performance. The technology combines a new bike frame material and a new patent-pending manufacturing method, resulting in bikes that are 300% more impact resistant than other frames on the market that use traditional carbon fiber materials, while maintaining equivalent weight and stiffness properties.

Solution

Guerrilla Gravity turned to Altair's OptiStruct in the early design phase to enable a much more concise, high-performance solution. OptiStruct allowed Guerrilla Gravity to jump to a high-performance solution much quicker than a common iterative FEA process. The topology optimization capabilities allowed the designers to run multiple load cases and evaluate exactly where the plies were needed in the frame. This knowledge early on enabled Guerrilla Gravity to make critical decisions that influenced expensive manufacturing outcomes. Additionally, OptiStruct allowed the team to gain significant confidence going into physical testing; knowing that the frames had a high likelihood of passing the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards on the first try.

Impact #1	The use of OptiStruct allowed Guerrilla Gravity to stay on schedule and avoid a potential delay of 3-4 months. It also resulted in a higher performing frame, as the company was able to make critical decisions that influenced expensive manufacturing outcomes early on. The ability to iterate and optimize in a significantly shortened timeline allowed the startup to become cash flow positive on schedule. The company believes that their Revved technology is at the forefront of bike frame material technology and that Altair will help them keep it there. Looking forward, the manufacturing efficiency of Revved Carbon Technology represents an entire sea of opportunities that can be applied to different applications. Over the next few years, Guerrilla Gravity will continue building and refining its manufacturing infrastructure to take advantage of the growing opportunities.

Impact #1

The use of OptiStruct allowed Guerrilla Gravity to stay on schedule and avoid a potential delay of 3-4 months. It also resulted in a higher performing frame, as the company was able to make critical decisions that influenced expensive manufacturing outcomes early on. The ability to iterate and optimize in a significantly shortened timeline allowed the startup to become cash flow positive on schedule. The company believes that their Revved technology is at the forefront of bike frame material technology and that Altair will help them keep it there. Looking forward, the manufacturing efficiency of Revved Carbon Technology represents an entire sea of opportunities that can be applied to different applications. Over the next few years, Guerrilla Gravity will continue building and refining its manufacturing infrastructure to take advantage of the growing opportunities.

Benefit #1	Significantly shortened timeline for the development of lightweight, high-performance bikes
Benefit #2	300% more impact resistant than other frames on the market that use traditional carbon fiber materials
Benefit #3	Reduced labor times by over 80% compared to traditional carbon bike frame methods

Benefit #1

Significantly shortened timeline for the development of lightweight, high-performance bikes

Benefit #2

300% more impact resistant than other frames on the market that use traditional carbon fiber materials

Benefit #3

Reduced labor times by over 80% compared to traditional carbon bike frame methods

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Overview

Guerrilla Gravity Revolutionizes Bike Manufacturing with IoT

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit