Arevo to manufacture ‘world’s first’ 3D-printed carbon fiber unibody bike frames

Startup company Arevo is to manufacture ‘world’s first’ 3D-printed carbon fiber unibody bike frames for the new line of e-bikes from Franco Bicycles.

Arevo, a Silicon Valley company specializing in composites manufacturing through digitalization, says the partnership with boutique bike manufacturer Franco Bicycles will deliver “the world’s first 3D printed, continuous carbon fiber single-piece unibody frame” for Franco’s “Emery” brand.

The companies will showcase the new “Emery One” e-bike in booth S9 at the Sea Otter Classic bicycling event in Monterey, California, April 11-14, during exhibition hours. 

Arevo says its “DNA technology” is unique in the additive manufacturing world as it features patented software algorithms enabling generative design techniques, free-motion robotics for “True 3D” construction, and direct energy deposition for virtually void-free construction all optimized for anisotropic composite materials.

Arevo says its unibody bike frame construction is “uniquely setting a new benchmark in high-performance bikes”.

The Arevo frame is made as a single part, in contrast to current composite frames, which are made of many parts glued together. With Arevo’s intelligent continuous carbon fiber placement, unprecedented structural integrity and stability are achieved.

Finally, the Arevo DNA additive manufacturing process takes the design and final manufacture of a bike frame from 18 months to just a few days at a significant reduction in product development costs.

The frames are in production now at Arevo’s new multi-purpose facility in Milpitas and this achievement with the Emery One represents several breakthroughs for bicycle manufacturers, with implications for other industries as well.

These breakthroughs include:

• True serial, volume production of additive manufacturing-made composite parts that are made with thermoplastic materials, which are tougher, durable and recyclable, as compared to brittle and non-recyclable thermoset materials
• A replacement of a laborious manual process with a fully-automated, “lights out” production model
• Delivering on the promise of localized manufacturing or “on-shoring,” which creates greater independence for bike brands
• A much greater “freedom of design” for bike manufacturers that creates the possibility of fully-customized bikes made on an “on demand” basis, an approach Arevo calls “Design. Print. Go.”

Hector Rodriguez, co-founder of Emery Bikes, says: “We chose Arevo technology because its iterative and flexible design represents the new age in composites manufacturing, and we wanted to be the first bike company to help lead this revolution.

“Arevo’s continuous carbon fiber technology has been instrumental in achieving the ride quality and high-performance requirements we set out to accomplish with the Emery One.”

Hemant Bheda, Arevo co-founder and chairman, says: “This is the first composite additive-manufactured bike frame and it represents an important milestone for the additive manufacturing industry as Arevo is delivering on the promise of on-demand manufacturing of composite parts in volume now.

“With the introduction of the Emery One, the transformation of the global composite bike industry has begun.”

Renowned industrial designer Bill Stephens of StudioWest collaborated with the Arevo and Franco teams to design the Emery One bike frame.

Stephens says: “Arevo DNA offers a new paradigm for product designers, it forever changes how we can design and build anything.

“This technology allows us to push design boundaries in a way that was impossible until now. Arevo is changing the paradigm to ‘Manufacturing for Design’.”

Visitors to the Sea Otter Classic can meet Stephens and view the new Emery One e-bike at the Franco Bicycles / Emery Booth – S9 – on Friday, April 12th, from 11 am to 12.30 pm.