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Carbon Fiber 3D Printing: Arevo Announces Pre-Orders for 3D Printed Electric Bikes

It may be impossible to re-create the wheel, but there are plenty of other parts and systems that can be redesigned for the greater good of the bike culture. Bicycling embraces health, reduced environmental impact, affordability, and often speed in competition as well. Most of us began riding bikes at a young age, enjoying independence in travel and free time in the fresh air; however, many bikes today have progressed in design far beyond what we imagined as kids. The electric bike is a perfect example, often accompanied by additive manufacturing for prototypes, modifications, and customization, and in the case of the Superstrata Terra—consumers can look forward to a design that is 3D printed “all the way to the spokes.”

Produced by Superstrata as an offshoot of Arevo, the Terra is somewhat unique in the bicycling industry, featuring a completely 3D printed unibody for an electric bike. Even more impressive, the thermoplastic carbon fiber frames can be printed in around ten hours.

Image: Superstrata

The bikes are said to be “remarkably lightweight” while still extremely impact resistant. Two models are about to be released:

  • Superstrata Terra – light in weight, customized and designed for versatility in riding styles with a frame weight of 2.8 pounds
  • Superstrata Ion – Class 1 e-bike featuring the following: rear-hub 250W motor, a 252Wh battery, 24.2-pound frame, and an estimated 60 miles of range

Electric bicyclists should be enthused about the sleek design and lack of a downtube, as well as the mag-style wheels.

“There’s no glue, no joints, no seams or anything like that,” Superstrata CEO Sonny Vu said in a recent interview. “And so you get a lot more strength.”

Vu worked with Bill Stephens for expertise in cycle design—and especially carbon fiber bike frames. Hailing from StudioWest Concepts, Stephens has also worked with other companies like Schwinn and Yeti. In creating the Superstrata, Vu and Stephens aimed for a “soup-to-nuts” bike meant to put the distinct benefits of 3D printing for bicycles on full display.

Image: Superstrata

The custom fit may be more expensive, however, according to Vu, who expects niche consumers to accept paying more for the bespoke features. Areva states that they are able to make up to 250,000 different combinations of the 3D printed electric bikes, with the Terra retailing for $2,799 and the Ion priced at $3,999. (Pre-orders can currently be made for $1,799.)

The latest releases reflect the evolution of 3D printed bikes from Areva, building on the Emory One prototype, considered an “exploratory project,” resulting in several sales. The frame of the Superstrata is similar, however, Vu claims that the new design is “five versions iterated since then.”

“We don’t really care about margin that much,” said Vu. “This is about almost a market demonstration of the tech. Rather than knocking on the doors of these big bike companies and begging them to make stuff for them, screw that,” Vu said. “Let’s just ship a product that people love. And if the big bike companies want us to make carbon fiber frames for them? We’ll totally do it.”

Arevo printer deposition head (Image: Arevo)

[Source / Images: The Verge]

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State of the Art: Carbon Fiber 3D Printing, Part Six

One topic we’ve skirted around in our carbon fiber series so far is large-scale composite printing processes. The reason for this is because it is both a big topic, literally and figuratively and involves material mixes that don’t quite fit with the continuous carbon fiber reinforcements we’ve discussed so far.

The BAAM 3D printer. Image courtesy of ORNL.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a pioneer in this space because the U.S. Department of Energy Lab almost single-handedly developed the technology, though it did so with the help of public tax dollars and partnerships with companies in the industry. Working with machine manufacturer Cincinnati Incorporated and Local Motors, ORNL developed the first large-scale plastic pellet 3D printer.

The project team used an old experiment additive construction that consisted of a large gantry system meant for extruding concrete. The printer was retrofitted with a screw extruder to process pellets made up of ABS with roughly five percent chopped carbon fiber filler. Using pellets has the advantage of much faster material handling, as well as reduced cost, since these are the same materials made for injection molding. Since injection molding pellets are available in wide supply and don’t need to be further processed into filament, the price is significantly lower.

The result was the Big Area Additive Manufacturing-CI system. The original BAAM-CI system was capable of printing 40 pounds of material per hour in a build volume of 7 ft x 13 ft x 3 ft. To demonstrate the sheer power of the machine, ORNL and its partners have 3D printed the chassis for a number of vehicles, including cars, boats and excavator cabs.

This Shelby Cobra is 3D-printed. Image courtesy of ORNL.

Since the first BAAM-CI printer was used to create a replica Shelby Cobra, its capabilities have grown greatly. Cincinnati Inc. now offers four sizes ranging from 11.7 ft x 5.4 ft x 3 ft to 20 ft x 7.5 ft x 6 ft, with a feed rate that has doubled to 80 lbs/hr. Cincinnati Inc. now offers a wider portfolio of 3D printers, including a Medium Area Additive Manufacturing system with a 1m x 1m x 1m build volume and 1 kg/hr deposition rate, as well as desktop-sized Small Area Additive Manufacturing printers.

The ability to handle composites with higher carbon fiber content has been achieved, as well. When 3D printing the first vehicle chassis for Local Motors, a 15 percent carbon fiber fill was used. In some cases, up to 50 percent carbon fiber content has been printed. Cincinnati states that “dozens of materials” have been used on its BAAM machines, such as ABS, PPS, PC, PLA, and PEI. In addition to carbon fiber, glass fiber and organic fiber have been used for reinforcement.

Taking a cue from its competitor, CNC manufacturer Thermwood developed its own large-scale additive extrusion technology, the Large Scale Additive Manufacturing (LSAM) series. Available with either a fixed or moving print table, the dual-gantry LSAM series is available with a print volume of 10 ft x 20 ft x 10 ft or 10 ft x 40 ft x 10 ft and can deposit 500 pounds of material per hour. And, while projects made by the BAAM printer require post-processing via CNC milling, the LSAM series has built-in machining capabilities that bring near-net-shape blanks to their final form.

Ingersoll’s MasterPrint was used to 3D print this boat. Image courtesy of Ingersoll.

To beat out everyone else in the manufacturing equipment space, Ingersoll Machine Tools worked with ORNL to develop the MasterPrint 3D printer, capable of 3D printing objects as large as 100 feet long, 20 feet wide and 10 feet tall at rates of 150 lbs/h to 1000 lbs/h. The system also features a CNC tool for machining parts to completion. We should note here that Thermwood claims its LSAM platform can be extended to be 100 feet long, though we have not yet seen such a setup.

Ingersoll sold its first MasterPrint system to the University of Maine, which it used to 3D print a 25-foot, 5,000-pound boat in under 72 hours. The ship, which will be used in a simulation program, had the distinction of achieving a Guinness World Record for the world’s largest solid 3D-printed item and largest 3D-printed boat.

The goal of the printer for Ingersoll is to fabricate massive tools for the aerospace industry. Upon the unveiling of the massive ship, CEO Chip Storie said, “The reality is we went into this technology targeting aerospace and you can print a large aerospace tool in a matter of hours or days where if you go the traditional route, it can take nine or 10 months to be able to build a tool. The cost difference for traditional tooling can run upwards of a million dollars to build an aerospace tool, where you can print a tool using our technology for tens of thousands of dollars. So, there’s a huge cost benefit. There’s a huge time benefit for the aerospace industry.”

The composites being used by these companies may only feature chopped reinforcement materials, but the speed and scale at which they can print is certainly impressive. In the case of Ingersoll, the company is working on incorporating hybrid modules that include fiber placement, tape laying, inspection and trimming.

We may see such systems as these become commonplace in certain manufacturing environments, particularly if continuous reinforcement can be integrated into the process. To learn more about the future of carbon fiber 3D printing, we’ll be looking at research endeavors in this field in our next section in the series.

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State of the Art: Carbon Fiber 3D Printing, Part Five

In the first part of our series on carbon fiber 3D printing, we discussed how the material is used in the larger world of manufacturing. As we’ve learned throughout this series, carbon fiber (along with other reinforcement materials) is typically used as a low-cost alternative to metal, given its high strength-to-weight ratio. Though the material is found most frequently in the aerospace industry, it is increasingly used in other sectors, such as automotive, sports and construction.

What’s we’ve focused on a bit less in this report so far is how it has been and will be used in 3D printing.

The Benefits of 3D Printing + Carbon Fiber

All of the additive technologies we’ve explored have their unique benefits and drawbacks, with some processes more limited in geometric complexity and others unable to deliver the same strength and stiffness as the rest. However, the advantage that they all have in common is a high degree of automation.

Traditionally, applying carbon fiber reinforcement is a manual and time-consuming process, which can be expensive in terms of labor hours. When it’s performed using industrial automation technology, as found in large aerospace facilities, it is extremely expensive. The highest of high-end automated fiber placement (AFP) machines can cost millions of dollars.

In contrast, 3D printing is a relatively automatic process. Once a CAD model has been finalized and is appropriately set up for fabrication by a given 3D printer, the additive manufacturing (AM) system itself will do most of the work (except for post-processing, loading up materials, configuring the printer, etc.).

With some desktop continuous carbon fiber 3D printers from Markforged, Desktop Metal and Anisoprint priced between $4,000 and $20,000, small businesses and workshops can have access to an automated method for producing carbon fiber-reinforced parts. For much larger firms, emerging systems, like those from Impossible Objects and Arevo, could make batch production much possible. And in either case, the technology will likely be less expensive than AFP.

Applications

Markforged has been on the market the longest and, therefore, has the most case studies demonstrating the range of uses for continuous carbon fiber 3D printing. That has also given it plenty of time to find use cases running the gamut from prototyping and tooling to end part manufacturing.

For example, Brooks, a publicly-traded automation equipment manufacturer, uses 3D printing to prototype end effectors meant to handle fragile goods like products like semiconductor wafers. The company claimed that its previous 3D printer was not capable of printing robust prototypes, but that carbon-fiber-reinforced designs were thin enough and stiff enough for the application.

A 3D-printed lifting tool, made using Markforged carbon fiber 3D printing. Can lift 960 kg. Image courtesy of Markfoged.

Tooling is a popular application for many Markforged customers, given the strength and durability of reinforced polymer parts. These can vary, including small jigs and fixtures to “the world’s first 3D-printed CE-Certified lifting tool”.

Using the X7 3D printer, Wärtsilä 3D printed a lifting tool for moving heavy ship engine parts, such as pistons. The marine and energy firm believed its typical steel machining process to be too expensive and opted for 3D printing a polymer lifting tool reinforced with carbon fiber. The resulting part was 75 percent lighter while capable of lifting 960kg. Wärtsilä believes that it saved €100,000 in tooling alone by printing the part.

In another case, a Canadian energy services company used Kevlar, high-strength, high-temperature fiberglass, and carbon fiber to reinforce tooling on its manufacturing equipment. Using Markforged’s lowest-cost option, the Mark Two, the firm printed 53 different parts for its pad handling machine, such as fuse covers, motor mounts, end effector laser mounts and more. The company estimated a total of CAD$27,000 in savings.

Robotic arm 3D printed with continuous carbon fiber. Image courtesy of Markforged.

The Boston-based startup has also seen its technology deployed for production of end parts. Haddington Dynamics  is an engineering startup that uses 3D printing to manufacture parts for a 7-axis robotic arm for such customers as NASA, GoogleX and Toshiba. 3D printing allowed the company to reduce part count on the design from 800 to under 70, including custom swappable 3D printed gripper fingers. To produce parts that are more robust, Haddington reinforces a chopped carbon fiber-filled nylon with continuous carbon fiber.

Though still newer to the market, Arevo has also been making a name for itself in mass production. The Silicon Valley firm is partnering with Franco Bicycles to 3D print continuous carbon fiber single-piece unibody frames for a new line of e-Bikes.

Arevo will be 3D printing a unibody bike frame for Franco Bicycles. Image courtesy of Arevo.

Fortify has devoted an entire business line to a very interesting application for its magnetic approach to composites. The startup has a service for the additive fabrication of tooling for the injection molding industry, though Fortify is relying on a proprietary ceramic material for this application. The material is durable enough that mold could last hundreds to thousands of shots, according to the company. Yet, unlike traditional molds, these parts are delivered in just three days and can be much more geometrically complex.

Other firms are a bit too young to go public with how their early customers are using their technologies, but demonstrator parts have been showcased. Desktop Metal, for instance, displays a variety of tooling, jigs and fixtures on its Fiber-dedicated page. Anisoprint has just three case studies up, but one is a research project that demonstrates the firm’s unique approach to reinforcing only the areas of a part that require added strength, reducing the weight of the part even further than traditional composites or other carbon fiber 3D printing approaches have executed.

As the technology begins to make its way into the marketplace, we will definitely see more applications of carbon fiber 3D printing. One area where it should continue to have a big impact is through the production of tooling and, a bit further along in the technology’s development, end parts. In the next part in our series, we’ll take a look at large-scale carbon fiber 3D printing. 

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