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news
Charge Bikes EADS dropout printing - finished dropoutsVideo: Charge 3D printed titanium dropouts being made
road.cc had an exclusive first look the 3D printing process being used by Charge Bikes in this video last summer, and today Charge have edited their own video showing how EADS Innovation Works, the corporate research centre for the EADS group, produce the dropouts from a pile of titanium dust. It's fascinating stuff.
In this video, it's Charge'sNick Larsen, takes us around the facility, and chats to Andy Hawkins from EADS about the process and the benefits over traditional fabrication methods. The dropouts in question are being used in Charge's latest titanium cyclo-cross frame, and because of the high cost of the dropouts it's a very limited run, just 50 being initially produced.
3D printing, or additive layer manufacturing to give it the proper name, starts out with a fine layer of titanium powder, on which a precision laser draws an outline, melting the layer. This process is repeated until a 3D object rises magically from the dust. But better than magic because no smoke and mirrors are involved. Very much the coming thing it is (as Yoda might say) so much so that we've got another 3D bike part printing almost done and dusted and coming your way soon.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
Latest Comments
- David9694 1 hour 12 min ago
Theres not one scrap of self-help among drivers is there, it's always someone else's issue.
- Simon E 2 hours 56 sec ago
Oh dear. A single bike in a single size in one shop is not indicative of the entire UK market for bicycles. And the slump isn't just bikes, it's...
- hawkinspeter 4 hours 53 min ago
Ridiculed or is it just jealousy?
- Rendel Harris 5 hours 19 min ago
Thank goodness for that. I don't suppose anyone would want you to. You certainly behave like one though.
- Eton Rifle 5 hours 26 min ago
You do see some utterly ridiculous examples of car use....
- Eton Rifle 5 hours 49 min ago
Exactly. Every road death is a tragedy but this is at the "twat deserved it" end of the spectrum, looking at the state of that car.
- Rendel Harris 5 hours 56 min ago
I'm not the editor of this article, nor indeed of anything on this website. One would have thought that didn't require explaining.
- Eton Rifle 5 hours 57 min ago
I think the answer is in your question. I genuinely didn't know he was married to her. It does kinda explain it. Disappointing, nevertheless.
- Daclu Trelub 10 hours 42 min ago
In a perfect world, we'd have a measure of how easily distracted someone is, as part of their driving test....
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2 comments
Surely it is the process - as you can create multiple designs in one print run without having to set multiple different machining tools in process at the same time to produce them? He mentions it at the beginning.
It is just a tube, but where the design improvements come in is being able to produce tricky shapes that are difficult to consistantly produce with molten metal mould processing or cutting. Did I imagine it or have Campag been producing a derailleur arm with 3D printing to reduce weight that can't be achieved with conventional methods?
It may have all sorts of medical and aerospace uses but in many respects with bicycles it's still a solution looking for a problem.
Hmmm more precisely it's SLS (selective laser sintering).
So they're proud of a copying a bent-tube-with-plate dropout design & adding their logo twice? Did their tube bender break?
The skill is not the process (as anybody can send a STL file to somewhere like Shapeways & receive parts exactly like these) but about the design.