Design & Manufacture of a High Performance Bicycle Crank by Additive Manufacturing

• DOI: 10.20944/preprints201807.0306.v1
• Publication Date: 2018-07-19T23:56:52Z
• Authors: Iain McEwen; David E Cooper; Jay Warnett; Nadia Kourra; Mark Williams; Gregory J Gibbons
• Keywords: Crank

Additive Manufacturing (AM) provides an opportunity to fundamentally redesign components previously limited by conventional manufacturing techniques. A new process for this workflow of design, manufacture Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) and validation is presented, which a case study crank high performance racing bicycle applied. Topology optimisation generated conceptually ideal geometry from functional design was interpreted. Design AM considerations were employed reduce build time, material usage post-processing labour. PBF the parts, quality assessed using Computed Tomography (CT). Static dynamic testing performed compared Finite Element Analysis (FEA). CT confirmed good tall, complex with no significant geometrical deviation CAD over 0.5 mm. proved close current market leaders, although failure under fatigue occurred after just 2495 ± 125 cycles, mechanism consistent in both its form location. These physical results representative those simulated, thus validating FEA. This research demonstrates complete manufacture, post-treatment highly loaded manufactured component, offering practitioners validated approach application PBF.