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The Bike Shop / Re: 3D printed titanium parts
« on: April 18, 2014, 06:30:45 AM »
Funny I'd see this now, after just looking at this yesterday
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/article/fabric-saddles-sonic-bonds-and-hyper-pins-40534/
I want to see a whole pan printed in ti - pivotal or tripod - something with a flatland shape to it, with big soft/contoured holes like a mix of these...
+
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shaped like a khe watanabe or old gt seats... just think of the sparks and finger cuts
I also want to see what they've actually done with stuff they were talking about two years ago
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/article/fabric-saddles-sonic-bonds-and-hyper-pins-40534/
Quote
March 27, 2014
...
The 3D printed titanium rails are designed with Airbus. The wall thickness is just a millimetre and they weigh a third of the amount of a standard titanium rail
This is the rail straight out of the 3D printer. It's smoothed and finished after printing, with the logos polished to a mirror finish
The hyper-Pins are designed to interlock into the base of the saddle. This piece locks into the nose
The whole rail is designed to work like a leaf spring, adding comfort where you need it
This piece locks into the rear of the base
The rails locate into the base before being sonically bonded
The carbon base has slots to take the Airbus-designed 3D printed titanium rails
"Once they've been sonically bonded it takes 2 tonnes of force to separate them"
.....
Now, Charge founder Nick Larsen has developed a new brand called Fabric, in collaboration with aerospace giant Airbus, which will produce saddles with 3D-printed titanium rails and whisper-thin carbon shells. Fabric will create saddles for bike brands such as Cannondale, Larsen said.
...
3D printed rails, sonic bonds and 'hyper-pin' technology
Charge Bikes started using 3D-printing technology on the rear dropouts of its titanium cyclocross frames, working in partnership with Airbus. So when when looking at creating the rails for Fabric's flagship ALM (additive layer manufacturing) saddle, Larsen went back to Airbus. The hollow rail is shaped to act as a leaf-spring, with wall thicknesses of just 1mm, except for at the reinforced clamp section. The design weighs a third of the ti rails on the Charge knife saddle.
Traditionally, saddle makers use glue and/or bolts to attach rails to a saddle's base. With Fabric, there is another Airbus technology: the 'hyper-pin' connection. Where a standard saddle would have rails inserted into the shell, Fabric uses a series of 3D-printed pins that interlock into the shell. These are then sonically bonded to the carbon shell, which is only 1mm thick. This method of construction is used by Airbus in some of its aeronautical applications, Larsen said, so that with just eight pins interlocked, the saddle junction is able to withstand a whopping two tons of force.
"Airbus must take the credit for the carbon technology within the saddles," Larsen said. "It's something we just haven't seen in bikes ever. We've tested the rails and base and they've been bent under testing to 90 degrees and still didn't fail. That should mean the Fabric saddle should take the worst of impacts and still be fine to use."
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I want to see a whole pan printed in ti - pivotal or tripod - something with a flatland shape to it, with big soft/contoured holes like a mix of these...
+
+
shaped like a khe watanabe or old gt seats... just think of the sparks and finger cuts
I also want to see what they've actually done with stuff they were talking about two years ago
