Sounds like the relationship with Airbus and their contractors is quite strong here! It's cool how they have access to such high grade fibres despite their low volumes.
I am curious about the fibre recycling process they use and which company they partner with, if they can disclose that. Is it a pyrolysis approach? You'd still lose 50% mass (all the resin gets burned up).
Also... what are their scrap rates like? Looks like they do a significant volume of testing for 50 frames per year and that looks like a dozen frames in that box?
Last one, I swear! I'm super curious as to why they do a two piece bonded with bladders. There are a few different ways to make a bike frame and I haven't seen this before so I'm very curious about the rational.
Also I lied, one more, consolidation strategy for bonding the two halves... just clamped at the BB or is their more we're not seeing? That's probably secret sauce. Guaranteeing a high quality bond for such complex geometry is an art for sure, of all the things in their manufacturing this impresses me the most.
If they're serious about closing the loop and using their scrapped carbon for parts in house and read this, pass along the key words Adam Smith McGill JEC 2019, he's got some secret sauce that may be interesting for them.
Hope everyone's staying safe and thanks to Deniz and Unno for this... I'll be geeking out over these images for days.
March 31, 2020, 10:56 p.m. - Sanesh Iyer
Sounds like the relationship with Airbus and their contractors is quite strong here! It's cool how they have access to such high grade fibres despite their low volumes. I am curious about the fibre recycling process they use and which company they partner with, if they can disclose that. Is it a pyrolysis approach? You'd still lose 50% mass (all the resin gets burned up). Also... what are their scrap rates like? Looks like they do a significant volume of testing for 50 frames per year and that looks like a dozen frames in that box? Last one, I swear! I'm super curious as to why they do a two piece bonded with bladders. There are a few different ways to make a bike frame and I haven't seen this before so I'm very curious about the rational. Also I lied, one more, consolidation strategy for bonding the two halves... just clamped at the BB or is their more we're not seeing? That's probably secret sauce. Guaranteeing a high quality bond for such complex geometry is an art for sure, of all the things in their manufacturing this impresses me the most. If they're serious about closing the loop and using their scrapped carbon for parts in house and read this, pass along the key words Adam Smith McGill JEC 2019, he's got some secret sauce that may be interesting for them. Hope everyone's staying safe and thanks to Deniz and Unno for this... I'll be geeking out over these images for days.