Technology Category
- Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) - Virtual Private Cloud
- Networks & Connectivity - Ethernet
Applicable Industries
- Aerospace
- Life Sciences
Applicable Functions
- Product Research & Development
- Quality Assurance
Use Cases
- Additive Manufacturing
- Manufacturing Process Simulation
Services
- Testing & Certification
About The Customer
Rolo Bikes is a company founded by Adam Wais and Anders Annerstedt, based in Sweden. The founders believed that the cycling industry was becoming stale, with nothing truly exciting hitting the marketplace. They spotted a gap in the market for a range of ultra-high performance bicycles that are tailored to the individual requirements of each rider. By combining a passion for cycling with a unique set of design and business expertise gained in other industries, the team founded Rolo Bikes with the aim of developing the best performing bicycles available. The company is now in a position to provide advisory services based on this work to other companies in the cycling industry.
The Challenge
Rolo Bikes, a company founded by Adam Wais and Anders Annerstedt, aimed to fill a gap in the market for ultra-high performance bicycles tailored to individual rider requirements. The challenge was to develop a high-performance, ultra-lightweight composite bike frame that exhibited world-leading strength and stiffness attributes while keeping weight to an absolute minimum. The design team at Rolo wanted to optimize the structure and find the ideal layout of carbon fiber that did not use any unnecessary material. However, the team lacked the in-house computer-aided engineering (CAE) expertise required to accurately analyze and optimize the frame. The objective was to achieve world-leading performance for weight, stiffness, and comfort, and to develop an efficient and cost-effective virtual testing process to analyze the performance of future bike frames.
The Solution
Rolo Bikes approached Altair ProductDesign due to its familiarity with the HyperWorks suite and expertise in the application of CAE techniques to optimize carbon fiber structures. Altair ProductDesign utilized a three-step approach to optimize the carbon fiber frame. The shape, thickness, direction, and location of each layer of composite material were fine-tuned until an optimum solution had been reached. Each stage was performed using HyperWorks' structural analysis solver, OptiStruct. The stages included Free-Size Optimization, Size Optimization, and Shuffle Optimization. At the end of this process, HyperWorks was utilized again to analyze and validate the optimized frame against the CEN and Zedler tests, and assess fatigue performance. The resulting composite ‘layup’ created a component that is manufacturable for Rolo’s meticulous hand layup construction process employed in its European based manufacturing center, all within cost targets.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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