First metal 3D bicycle frame manufactured by Renishaw

Renishaw, the UK’s only manufacturer of a metal-based additive manufacturing machine that prints metal parts, has collaborated with a leading British bicycle design and manufacturing company to create the world’s first 3D printed metal bike frame. Empire Cycles designed the mountain bike to take advantage of Renishaw’s additive manufacturing technology, allowing them to create a titanium frame that would be both strong and light using topological optimisation - the new frame is some 33% lighter than the original.

The frame has been additively manufactured in titanium alloy in sections and bonded together.  This offers a number of advantages:

Design freedom

?       Rapid iterations; flexibility to make design improvements right up to production

?       Ability to make shapes derived by topological optimisation (see over)

?       Ultimate customisation and tailoring - make one-offs as easily as production batches

 Construction

?       Complex shape with internal strengthening features

?       Hollow structures

?       Built in features, such as the rider’s name

Performance, titanium alloy

?       Seat post bracket 44% lighter than aluminium alloy version

?       Extremely strong - tested to EN 14766

?       Corrosion resistant and long lasting

How light is it? 

Empire Cycles is a unique British bike designing and manufacturing company in the North-West of England. Passionate about using great British engineering to create elite products, the Company offers innovative designs to the world’s mountain bikers and downhillers.

From the Greek word for place, “topo”, topological optimisation software is the term given to programs that are used to determine the “logical place” for material – normally using iterative steps and finite element analysis. Material is removed from areas of low stress until a design optimised for load bearing is evolved. The resulting model is both light (due to the low volume) and strong.

By working together, Renishaw and Empire Cycles optimised the bicycle design for additive manufacture, eliminating many of the downward facing surfaces that would otherwise have needed wasteful support structures.

How strong is it?

Titanium alloys have a high Ultimate Tensile Strength (UTS) of more than 900 MPa when processed using additive manufacturing and near perfect densities of greater than 99.7% are achieved; this is better than casting and, as any porosity is both small and spherical, it has little effect on strength.

The project’s aim is to pro