3D printed titanium mountain bike components

Global engineering company Renishaw is working with mountain bike brand Atherton Bikes to produce additively manufactured titanium lugs for the company’s bike frames.

The bike range will be manufactured from carbon fibre tubing and lugs produced on a Renishaw multi-laser high productivity RenAM 500Q metal additive manufacturing (AM) system. Initial production will be at Renishaw’s Additive Manufacturing Solutions Centre located in Staffordshire, followed by a transition towards in-house manufacture by Atherton Bikes.

The lugs for Atherton Bikes are the first bike components to be built on the four-laser RenAM 500Q system.

“Manufacturing the lugs on the RenAM 500Q enables rapid production time,” said Jono Munday, additive manufacturing applications manager at Renishaw. “The bike frame development can be turned around quickly and customised to the exact requirements of the rider, whether that is the Atherton Racing team or an individual retail customer.”

Also partnering on the project is suspension designer Dave Weagle, along with Ed Haythornthwaite and other members of the former Robot Bike Company. Renishaw had previously worked with the Robot Bike Company by manufacturing the titanium lugs for its R160 bike frame.