Rodin Wheels Driven by Rapid Manufacturing

Every industry is driven by innovation, and the business of sports manufacturing is no different. Athletes look for every possible advantage that will improve their performance, and the engineers at sporting goods companies are eager to provide their customers with the latest improvements. For a sport like mountain biking, one of the most important elements that determines performance is a bike’s wheels. 

Rodin Wheels has developed a new type of wheel for mountain biking that promises to minimize pinch flats and bring an end to bent rims. With designs for the wheels and the tools required to build the wheels ready to go, the company has reached out to its customer base through Kickstarter to begin production. 

While Rapid Ready does mainly focus on additive manufacturing (AM) we do recognize other technologies may succeed in places where AM isn’t quite ready to go. In the case of Rodin Wheels, the company found that an AM process to manufacture wheels would be too slow and costly to produce large quantities of product and so chose to go with a different solution. 

3Drsr is the name of a rapid manufacturing process that has its roots in lost-core molding. According to the patent it is: 

A simplified lost-core molding system that combines otherwise redundant features such as platens and hydraulic cylinders ordinarily found in separate core molding stations and product molding stations. The preferred system locates the core mold and the product mold between the platens of an injection molding machine and applies a common clamping force to the core mold and to the product mold. 

According to Rodin Wheels, the use of 3Drsr will allow the company to produce one-piece, hollow wheels. These aren’t your daddy’s wheels, either. The wheels Rodin intends to produce are manufactured from aerospace-grade composite materials, making them both light and tough. The 3Drsr process is also speedy, producing a wheel in five minutes for less than $200. 

It is absolutely true that no AM process can challenge that production rate, but the company does seem to have some odd ideas about 3D printing to keep in mind if you watch the video linked below. Comparing the durability of a prototype built using Fused Deposition Modeling (e.g. plastic) to a finished metal part seems like an apples to oranges comparison. 

Backers of the Kickstarter campaign will receive a set of Rodin Wheels for a pledge of $389. 

This isn’t the first time 3D printing and bicycling have come together. Earlier this year, Renishaw produced a titanium bicycle frame. 

Below you’ll find the Rodin Wheels video. 

Source: Kickstarter