Implementation of additive manufacturing on bike stems for road bikes

Abstract: This thesis explores the possibilities with additive manufacturing, applied to the engineering of high performance bike parts. The goal was to study the technique and materials that make up the additive manufacturing in order to apply this to bike stems. Also, the goal was to develop both a physical and a virtual model to further evaluate the possibilities with additive manufacturing. Knowledge of the additive manufacturing processes was gained through an extensive information study. After that, a focus on a particular method, EBM, electron beam melting, was made. The process of development of a bike part, the steering stem, was documented to identify the strength and weaknesses of the technique and to finally evaluate it to a traditionally manufactured reference stem. The design process started with a state-of-the-art study and concept stage to later be followed with an iterative process of modelling and simulating. The concepts were created with accordance of the constraints set upon them from our technical specification and the European standards regarding bike parts which limits the maximum allowed deformation and fatigue. One concept was selected to be modelled as a physical component. Finally, the developed component is discussed and compared to a chosen reference stem. The final concept did not outperform the reference in weight, but valuable insight and knowledge were gained along the way. The main conclusion of the thesis is that additive manufacturing is a suitable tool for manufacturing of high performing bike parts. Suggestions for future work are also given, where a further analysis with other materials using the EBM-technique is suggested.