FILAMENT WOUND CARBON RIMS.
CYCLITECH 2015
INTRODUCTION.
An automated composite product manufacturing process first deployed for commercial parts production in the 1940s in the aerospace industry - military back then, shortly after S-Glass fibers became more widely available. It is a well understood process that delivers excellent structural performance.
The high performance variants of the filament winding process are still mostly used in the aerospace and military setting.
Its use in the sporting goods industry started with fishing rods and golf shafts...
AN.
FILAMENT WINDING.
FILAMENT WINDING EXAMPLE.
PROCESS.
OUR
WIND
GEL
REMOVE
SHAPE
ASSEMBLE
SET
Wind a rim specific mandrel using carbon fiber tow passed through a wet resin bath
Gel at room temperature
Remove from mandrel
Place the wound form into the final rim shape mold
Seat the pre-prepared tire bed and spoke hole reinforcement piece into the mold together with wound form
Cure the assembled rim, demold, postcure, finish and drill
FILAMENT WOUND RIMS.
EXAMPLES.
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RIM CROSS SECTION.
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FILAMENT WINDING.
Theoretically optimal way for using fiber reinforcement - filament winding lays the tow under constant tension therefore ensuring high degree of fiber co-linearity at microscopic scale.
WHY USE
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Easily scalable requiring minimal training and labour.
Very economical - the input materials are minimally processed and thus inexpensive to purchase and prepare.
Carbon fiber tow has more uniform properties compared to prepreg, is far less sensitive to handling and has no appreciable shelf life problems.
Computer controlled process - any process instability, final product performance standard deviation from the mean, or any other output variation is due to controllable variables, independent of human skill.
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Minimal material waste - no need to cut curved shapes out of a rectangular aspect fabric.
FILAMENT WINDING.
New application of the process - steep learning curve
WHY NOT USE
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First generation process still requires manual downstream processes for rim production
Additional machinery cost - replace variable with fixed costs
Additional tooling costs - need winding mandrels as well as rim shape molds, potentially doubling the investment in tooling
"Wet layup" process while very economical introduces the highest variation into the process. Tuning the resin properties to work with the winding and downstream processes, and satisfy the performance objectives is a demanding task.
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PERFORMANCE.
RIM
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LATERAL STIFFNESS
INTER-BATCH VARIANCE EXPRESSED IN %
PERFORMANCE.
RIM
HOOP STIFFNESS
INTER-BATCH VARIANCE EXPRESSED IN %
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Ongoing process improvements lead to greater automation reducing human labour requirement.
First generation process already more economical than any manual layup process.
Downstream processes are also being automated - finishing, drilling, painting.
THE
IMPACT.
Final step, packing and logistics already have automated solutions.
The future, automated composite rim production at the site of consumption, on demand, just in time?
QUESTIONS.
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VENN REV 35 TCD MTB TUBELESS SETUP AT THE MONGOLIA BIKE CHALLENGE
VENN REV 35 TCD WITH ROAD TUBELESS TIRES AND PROTOTYPE VELOCITE SYN ROAD BIKE
US.
FACEBOOK.
www.facebook.com/velocite.bikes
CONTACT.
TWITTER.
LINKEDIN.
www.twitter.com/velocitebikes
www.linkedin.com/in/majorv
WEB.
www.venn-cycling.com
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