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TECH NEWS

Aussie inventor unveils elegant 3D-printed fixie prototype

Still some work to do before it's ridable, James Novak concedes

3D printing has already made it easy for inventors to bring clever plastic widgets to market without shelling out on expensive injection moulds, and many are confident we'll see complete 3D printed bikes one day.

James Novak's FIX3D frame is one of the more promising-looking designs we've seen, but even the inventor, an industrial designer, university lecturer, and researcher from Brisbane, Australia, admits it's a long way from being ready for prime time.

The FIX3D is on display at an exhibition called Making A Difference / A Difference in Making at the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, in Brussels, curated by software and engineering company Materialise.


Novak was even able to shape his name into the frame

The first incarnation of Novak's ethereal lattice frame was printed using stereolithography (SLA), building up layer upon layer of resin which is then cured with ultraviolet light.

However, parts manufactured with this technique — more commonly used for prototyping than making usable components — have problems. As Novak puts it in a recent blog post: "The SLA frame was a delicate thing to manage, and really showed its limitations over the hot Australian summer when it literally melted whilst stored in my house!"


The SLS-printed version in three pieces

Presented with the chance to make a more durable version for the Making A Difference expo, Novak went for a 3D printing technique called Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) which binds powdered material into the desired shape by zapping it with a frickin' laser beam.

It's the same technique used by Charge bikes for a limited run of titanium dropouts a couple of years ago.

To keep the cost of the frame under control, Novak's gone for polyamide (the class of plastics that includes nylon) rather than titanium.

However, SLS printing isn't currently suitable for large pieces such as bike frames.

Novak says on his blog: "The limitation with SLS however is the smaller print volume, requiring the frame to be cut into 3 segments and glued together after printing.

"It certainly feels a bit more durable, although before anyone asks, no this still can’t be ridden!"

Pity.

But like other 3D printing pioneers and experimenters, Novak is optimistic that the problems will be overcome in time.

He says: "With SLS printing still limited by size, it will be some years before titanium or composite fiber material printers are able to print this in 1 piece… But it will be exciting when it happens."

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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21 comments

Avatar
matthewn5 | 9 years ago
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+1 for triangles. Try it yourself with one of those sleeves they put around duty free bottles. It's not stable.

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Zebra | 9 years ago
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Would turn into a flesh grater in a crash...

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hawkinspeter | 9 years ago
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I quite like the look of it. I wouldn't buy one though as you'd end up with bits of grit, twigs, sweet wrappers etc all caught up in the frame and cleaning it wouldn't be fun.

I'm waiting for 3d-printing to be used to make frame "tubes" that have a honeycomb-like structure internally to increase strength whilst reducing weight. (And a smooth exterior - unlike this design).

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ConcordeCX replied to hawkinspeter | 9 years ago
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hawkinspeter wrote:

I'm waiting for 3d-printing to be used to make frame "tubes" that have a honeycomb-like structure internally .

If they made a chocolate one it would be Aero

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pistol13 | 9 years ago
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Elegant; graceful and stylish in appearance or manner.
Ugly; unpleasant or repulsive, especially in appearance.

You decide!

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pistol13 | 9 years ago
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Elegant; graceful and stylish in appearance or manner.
Ugly; unpleasant or repulsive, especially in appearance.

You decide!

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DaveE128 | 9 years ago
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There is nothing wrong with the concept of a 3D printed frame.

However this design is completely stupid. A structure made of four sided holes is going to be stretchy, bendy and generally floppy. It should have been made up of triangles. Preferably in a 3D space frame arrangement (cf a moulton frame). Then it would actually be rideable, probably even with relatively low performance materials.

If this lecturer had run the design past some engineering colleagues he would have found this out very quickly.

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wingsofspeed68 | 9 years ago
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Good job it doesn't work. Would be a swine to clean.

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crikey | 9 years ago
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Quote:

exciting design projects

A thing that looks like a poo bicycle and doesn't work is an exciting design project? You need to ask for a review of your medication.

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notfastenough | 9 years ago
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So where's the exciting design projects from the naysayers? No? Thought not.

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joemmo replied to notfastenough | 9 years ago
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notfastenough wrote:

So where's the exciting design projects from the naysayers? No? Thought not.

The problem is that nowadays it's dead easy to design something that looks amazing and model and render it in realistically 3D so that everyone says 'wow, that's cool and exciting, I want it.' It's slightly harder to design it and print it in 3D but still entirely possible but the result may still be a thing that cannot serve the purpose it is meant for. Personally I do think this is interesting (although unattractive) and I'm sure the designer will learn something from it and get some good publicity but it still doesn't work yet so it's something of an illusion

It's also a fixie and they are like, so 2013?

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crikey | 9 years ago
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A not working thing that looks like poo.
Back to the drawing board chaps...

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OldRidgeback replied to crikey | 9 years ago
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crikey wrote:

A not working thing that looks like poo.
Back to the drawing board chaps...

If your poo looks anything remotely like that you need to see a medical professional, and fast. It's probably terminal.

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wycombewheeler | 9 years ago
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beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I quite like it.

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joemmo | 9 years ago
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Man Makes Thing That Doesn't Work.
The End.

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darth replied to joemmo | 9 years ago
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joemmo wrote:

Man Makes Thing That Doesn't Work.
The End.

Yes, because virtually all scientific advances worked from inception, didn't they!!!

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joemmo replied to darth | 9 years ago
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darth wrote:
joemmo wrote:

Man Makes Thing That Doesn't Work.
The End.

Yes, because virtually all scientific advances worked from inception, didn't they!!!

It's an engineering challenge rather than scientific if you want to be pedantic. What's not clear if it is being led by form or by function. Is he setting out to make a genuinely better bike frame using a new manufacturing technique or just something purely speculative / decorative? As another poster pointed out, the mesh should be triangular, not diamond shaped so it doesn't compress along the axis so basic structural engineering doesn't seem to be at the forefront of the design.

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pants | 9 years ago
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I appreciate form of function but this thing doesn't look very nice in my opinion, like white chicken wire.

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Kadinkski replied to pants | 9 years ago
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pants wrote:

I appreciate form of function but this thing doesn't look very nice in my opinion, like white chicken wire.

Its 'elegant'. Apparently.  39

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HarryTrauts | 9 years ago
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I was at The Big Bang - a kids science expo at the NEC - and there was a 3D printed mountain bike. It looked really good and solid but they said it took days to print and cost a fortune. At least it worked, though.

3D printing will be the way forward one day...

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Kadinkski | 9 years ago
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"Aussie inventor unveils elegant 3D-printed fixie prototype"

Are you serious?

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