Cycling forward with bike frame materials and processes!

 📢Saturday Spotlight!📢 Cycling forward with bike frame materials and processes!

"Are carbon fiber-reinforced polymer (CFRP) bicycle frames poised for a “great reshoring” — the return of production to locales near the customer base — or will they continue to be fabricated and shipped largely from Asian countries, as the vast majority are today? The short answer, according to bike manufacturers interviewed by CW, is that Asia will continue to predominate. Still, noteworthy changes to the bicycle manufacturing landscape are evident."

"CFRP frame manufacturing is making inroads in North America and Europe, where most CFRP bike enthusiasts reside. “One of the biggest differences [between offshore and reshored manufacturing] is product ownership,” emphasizes Dave Luyckx, chief product officer at Leuven, Belgium-based Rein4ced. “Asia doesn’t have a bicycle culture, but we have this cycling culture that infuses passion into the product.”

"Of course, cycling passion must be accompanied by composites know-how and innovative approaches before reshored CFRP frames achieve considerable market penetration. To the extent that the geography and technology of CFRP bike frame manufacturing are changing, key factors include the same market forces affecting all globalized manufacturing industries today: supply chain issues, the fallout from the pandemic, and geopolitical uncertainties. But the primary agent of change appears to be the classic tension between two manufacturing dynamics often at odds with each other: economies of scale versus production agility. The latter has prompted innovation that includes technical advances in the traditional hand-laid fabrication approach as well as forays into new materials and automated processes."

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Source:#managingcomposites