It may be early in 2022 but there’s already a first new project coming up. We are very happy to announce that Radiate Engineering & Design teams up with Tour de Suisse Rad AG for the development and assessment of a new frame geometry. Tour de Suisse is a Swiss bicycle manufacturer from Kreuzlingen and is well known for its “à la Carte” system which allows the customer to put together his or her individual bike from a range of colours and equipment.

When transferring a product idea into a feasible product, a wide variety of technical aspects must be taken into account. No one knows this better than Martin Schütz, engineer and lecturer at both ETH Zurich (Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering) and Zurich University of the Arts (Industrial Design). In his class about Design and Engineering, he gave his students an in-depth insight into the problems of the technical implementation of an idea up to a functioning product.

The task that the students gave themselves was to design a modular bicycle trailer. They wanted to develop an innovative idea and turn it into a functional prototype. The concept from the team around Felix Brunold, Dominic Büttiker, Yu Ting Chung and Thibaut Wenger was to develop a bicycle trailer that can be adapted and used for various applications and types of luggage and loads.

When the moment arrived to turn the students’ product idea into reality, Radiate Engineering & Design came into play. During one day, the students showed up in the Radiate Prototyping Lab in order to finalize and produce a functional prototype, using flax materials and vacuum lamination methods.

The results – of which we are a bit proud of as well – can be seen in this image gallery:

During our visit to the Eurobike 2019 fair, we found an interesting display of innovative engineering ideas. Especially two projects caught our eye, that are both daring and innovative at the same time.

New drivetrain from CeramicSpeed
It’s quite unusual to see a complete redesign of a drivetrain. Usually, innovation is approached within the standard chain and derailleur configuration that we all know. However, CeramicSpeed is attempting to break the mould with its new concept drivetrain called “Driven“. It uses a dual Pinion configuration with a fixed front Pinion and a split rear Pinion that handles the gear shifts. The Pinions are made up of a ring of CeramicSpeed bearings which form the method of engagement. The gear change is wireless with the shifting mechanism, actuator and rechargeable battery housed inside the hollow carbon shaft. By splitting the rear Pinion each half can move independently with gear changes using what CeramicSpeed describes as a “step and follow pattern”. They have been working with the University of Colorado’s Mechanical Engineering Department on the project and it looks both stunning and daring! For a closer look on how it works, check out their video.

Titomic: Additive-manufactured carbon and titanium
The company uses a technology called “Titomic Kinetic Fusion” for the application of cold-gas dynamic spraying of titanium alloy particles onto a scaffold to produce a load-bearing structure. As with the tube-and-lug frame they exhibited at Eurobike, this can be used to create small components, which are then fused via carbon tubing. Titomic also showed a 3D printed carbon frame they developed together with their partner Varuu cycles. This clearly shows the potential of additive manufacturing in the cycling industry.