11/8/2023 0 Comments Lattice method example![]() ![]() While it’s a fast-developing technology, 3D printers are still prohibitively expensive to own. While there are small-scale advantages, 3D printing can also come with eye-watering costs if you’re looking to roll out a printed product for the mass market. While the first commercial 3D printer was unveiled in the 1990s, it’s still a relatively new – and niche – piece of technology. But if it’s so good, why aren’t we all riding around on bikes that look like something straight out of Tron? 3D printing’s limitationsĪdditive manufacturing clearly has a number of benefits. “We make to order, so we can constantly update our product – if something like UDH comes along, you don’t have to scrap it and start again,” adds Gowe. The fluidity of production also enables companies to respond to new standards or changes without being left with stock that suddenly becomes out-of-date. shipping things three times around the world, we could have a printer and a very small team in North America, for example, printing parts for the North American market.” “We would like to always manufacture local to where the product is being used. Renishaw also worked with Hope to develop the striking HB.T track bike for Team GB. However, for some smaller manufacturers, it can work out cheaper than alternative methods, by localising production and opening the market to companies who wouldn’t be able to invest in the tools, moulds and stock required to compete in the traditional supply chain. If you were to think all of this sounds expensive, you’d be right. He adds that pressure-mapping tools have shown it can improve balance on the saddle too, minimising loss of power transfer for those at the sharp end of racing. Locatelli claims this is “especially good for the rebounding and damping vibration needs” of a saddle, with “an average reduction in peak pressure of about 60 per cent” compared to a standard, non-3D printed model. The padding is constructed from a carbon fibre compound that’s printed in a lattice structure shaped like a honeycomb. This advantage isn’t limited to printing in metals though, as Fizik’s 3D-printed saddles show. This is programmed into a 3D printer – a cube-shaped machine that doesn’t look too dissimilar to a standard, 2D printer.Ī thin coating of powder (commonly a metal such as titanium in the cycling industry) is spread across the bed of the printer before a laser beam scans the path of the first layer – the heat solidifying the points it touches and leaving the areas it doesn’t as powder.Īnother coating of powder is then added, and the process is repeated, the layers fusing with each other as the product builds from the base up until the final layer is completed.Īccording to Fizik, the honeycomb-like structure of a 3D-printed saddle offers a 60 per cent reduction in pressure. It all starts with a 3D CAD (computer-aided design) model, which is split into each individual layer. ![]() ![]() Rather than carving something from a block of material – as happens with a milling process such as CNC machining – the design is built up, layer by ultra-thin layer. ![]() Getty ImagesģD printing, or additive manufacturing to give it its proper name, does exactly what it says on the tin. 3D printing creates a product – whether it’s a bike part or a set of dentures – layer by layer. ![]()
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