It is quite natural to be so, since poor quality steel is an obsolete material (however the story is radically different with hi-quality steel), carbon can be expensive sometimes and titanium is not so easy to find. The metallic properties of ductile materials, the von Mises stress and strain analysis, and optimal design theory are used. An obvious example is the beefed up bottom brackets designed to resist flexing during pedalling. On the other hand CFRPs are anisotropic. Figure 4.1: Common bicycle frame materials The materials used for mountain bicycle frames have a wide range of mechanical properties. Thorough damage assessment on carbon frames is significantly more complicated. The main benefit to carbon as a bike frame material lies in its stiffness. This is then impregnated with resin under a vacuum and cured. This may have been true with early frames but is not the case anymore. Ovalised tubes essentially act as a larger tube in one direction, and as a smaller tube at 90 degrees to this. What material properties are important in choosing bicycle frame material? The core is commonly a removable inflatable bladder which applies internal pressure during the cure. Steel and titanium have a fatigue limit, a maximum stress below which the material can be loaded an unlimited number of times without failing. Most manufacturers now use pre-preg carbon; sheet of carbon fibres that are pre-impregnated with resin. In other words there should usually be significant warning and visible bending before a steel frame will fail completely. For example Kevlar and Vectran are used to provide additional crash resistance. The main property of importance for bike frame design is Young’s Modulus. CFRPs allows reinforcement of the frame by adding more material in specific areas. Alloy frames are a relatively recent introduction to the world of bicycling. Different frame materials have different properties that give them slightly different characteristics, but you simply cannot know how a bike will ride by its frame material. Sorry, preview is currently unavailable. The theoretical analysis is according to the fourth metal material … The earliest bikes were simple wooden framed push along affairs but soon the material of choice was heavy iron, which in turn was superseded by steel. You can download the paper by clicking the button above. Welds can act as stress concentrators and nowadays, many high-end alloy frames, such as the Cannondale CAAD series, smooth out the weld area to avoid any localised stress concentration. Nonetheless, aluminium is a more brittle and weaker material than steel, and as such frames tend to be slightly overbuilt to make frames stronger and give a larger safety margin. However, the lower density will result in a frame weighing around 30% less than a steel frame. Comfort and frame design are perhaps something we will leave for another day. Because carbon fibers are pliable in one direction and stiff in the other, sheets can be layered to make different parts of the frame react differently. Buy steel because you want a bespoke frame or favour a smooth ride quality and don’t mind a bit of extra weight. However, many, there is something romantic about a nicely made, high end steel frame. Aluminium alloy is nowhere near as strong or stiff as steel, but has around one-third of the density. Bianchi Countervail technology incorporates a vibration dampening layer in the layup that performs a similar function. This is then placed inside a mould and cured at high temperature and pressure. A tube “blank” is put inside a die. That said, a crash that destroys a carbon frame is likely to destroy most other frames as well. There is significant interest to improve the impact resistance of carbon fibre by modifying the resin and fibres as well as using novel layups and resins. A frame may use hundreds of individual pieces. Aluminium road bikes – save for some custom designs – are fairly inexpensive. However, there is a limit to how thin tubing walls can be made before they become susceptible to damage, denting and more importantly buckling. It is usually possible to bend frames back into alignment and repair damage. Each bicycle frame material offers a list of differing characteristics that will affect the cost, comfort, weight, stiffness, strength and durability. The sheets are cut to shape and layered around a core. Best mountain bikes you can buy for under £2,000, The best hardtail and full suspension mountain bikes you can buy for under £1500, Best MTB's that you can get shipped straight to your door, The best titanium gravel and adventure bikes you can buy, No, longer mountain bike geometry isn't a fad, First Look: Pipedream Full Moxie Frameset, MT Zoom Ultralight Inline Carbon Seatpost review, Maxxis Shorty 3C Maxx Terra EXO TR tyre review, The best gravel wheelsets you can buy in 2021. The individual tubes must then be bonded together. First, there are three types of material properties: Physical – Density, color, electrical conductivity, magnetic permeability, and thermal expansion. In the event of a crash or damage there is a significant threshold in which steel can deform before failing. Discussing the intricacies of this is something that could take up a whole additional article. 3Al-2.5V is the most widely used alloy, though the higher performing 6Al-4V also exists. Do you need the marginal gains that a lightweight carbon frame can provide, do you want the lightweight but cheaper compromise of aluminium, do you want the prestige and life-long durability of titanium, or do you want the traditional and versatile steel? The resin must be cured to set the shape of the composite. That doesn't mean you should listen to people who claim aluminium frames are much more prone to failing in the real world however; by designing frames to minimise the maximum stress levels experienced, the lifetime of the frame will be more than long enough to cover a normal lifetime of use. There's likely to be no difference between a bike that claims to be made from 'military grade' material and one that isn't. Early frames were described as “noodly” because they used similar tubing dimensions to the more traditional steel – the change in material stiffness hadn’t been taken account of and they flexed significantly. As 6061 is more ductile, it is more likely to be formed this way. Although over the years there have been such oddities as bamboo and plastic frames, current road bikes are made of one or blends of these four materials: steel, aluminum, titanium and carbon fiber. Aluminium provides an excellent compromise, allowing lightweight bikes to be built at more reasonable costs. Doing this, doubling the diameter results in four times the stiffness. In reference to bicycle frames, “alloy” means aluminum alloy, unless the description includes another type of material. It is incredibly strong, very stiff, easy to work with and cheap to manufacture. Mechanical – Elongation, fatigue limit, hardness, stiffness, shear … Chromoly (Chrome Molybdenum) Steel. Read more: 15 of the best steel road bikes and frames. Cycling companies will often talk about using aerospace grade metals – but the reality is that designated alloys have to conform to certain quality requirements regardless of whether they are used in an aircraft or a bike frame. It is incredibly hard-wearing and corrosion resistant, which is also why it is often left unpainted. While it is possible to repair carbon fibre, it could be difficult to do satisfactorily without knowing the (proprietary) details of the layup of the frame to be repaired. However, nowadays the ride of an aluminium frame can be exceptional. For a given amount of material (and weight), we can increase the diameter of a frame tube but must simultaneously reduce its thickness. The materials used for bike frames have a wide range of mechanical properties. This study examines the Al6061 aluminum alloy as the material for the bicycle frame. Whilst explaining this is outside the scope of this article, this is a heat treatment that improves the properties of the alloy. Carbon or high-tensile steel is a good, strong, long-lasting steel, but it isn't as light as its more high-tech brother, the steel known as chromoly. At the very core of every bicycle, there is a frame. Stiffness (or elastic modulus) can in theory affect the ride comfort and power transmission efficiency. Steel is the mother of all engineering materials. It is possible to make an excellent frame with any of the materials mentioned, but for a high performance frame, the choice will usually come down to be either carbon fibre or aluminium. It should be noted that the ability to soak up “road-buzz” is not really related to the ability to absorb larger shocks or impacts. ing bike frames. All metals used for bikes are an alloy. This workability is part of the reason steel has had a resurgence with smaller builders. However the largest limitation of carbon fibre is that it is an inherently brittle material. Different fibre types can also be used to further tune the composite properties. Contrary to what you might expect, outright strength is less important. Tuning compliance by selecting appropriate tubing dimensions and geometries is the key way to control comfort in metal frames. Fluid is run through at incredibly high pressure forming the tube to the shape of the mould it is in. A tougher material is able to absorb more energy before failing, meaning it will bend rather than breaking in a brittle way. The material is light and stiff. In practical use the different alloys will be indistinguishable, though 7005 is slightly cheaper to work with as it requires less overall processing. The mechanical pro-perties of common bike frame materials are listed in Table 1. It can be made to have very high strengths. However material toughness is essential in ensuring damage resistance. It resists loads in all directions. Wall thicknesses are around twice that of steel and tubing diameters are around 20-30% larger to maintain suitable stiffness. off-road.cc is dedicated to bringing you the best coverage of all off-road riding, Our sister site for road bikes... road.cc Frames are designed so that stresses are low enough that in normal loading it will not reach its fatigue life within its usage lifetime. It is completely different because it can be “designed” specifically for its application. 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One table will present material properties requirements for the selected materials commonly used for bicycle wheels, frame, components and helmet. You can’t compare the reputation of a material as it’s used in a mass produced frame with a custom application because mass produced frames haven’t been optimized to meet your unique priorities. Typical frame weighs from 1,5 by 3,0 kg, which is about a quarter of the weight of the bicycle. We don’t use pure iron (steel is a mixture of iron and carbon), pure aluminium or pure titanium. Young’s Modulus is similar for metals made from the same alloy. This material is currently being used all over the bicycle market, from strictly track bikes to road racers, complete frames or part CFRP frames, and components used in mountain bike off road frames. Pre-preg sheets are used to produce monocoque frames. CFRP consists of microscopic carbon fibres aligned and held in a resin matrix. The alternative to using pre-preg is Resin Transfer Moulding (RTM). With titanium and steel we move towards more of a niche market. Aluminium has a reputation of having a harsh ride. High end mountain bikes also take advantage of carbon, and here it is again a wonderful frame material. Production frames are of course available, but these materials are also the purview of custom builders who will design a bike fitted to you. The resin matrix ensures the correct alignment of the fibres, and provides additional compressive strength. This provides stiffness in one direction but compliance in the other. All material © Farrelly Atkinson (F-At) Limited, Unit 7b Green Park Station BA1 1JB. Pros and cons of aluminium frame material. It is relatively hard to work with, wearing out tooling more quickly and requiring a controlled atmosphere for welding. Elasticity: When an object responds to bending or stretching by returning to its original shape, it is said to have a high level of elasticity. Woven pre-preg may be used as an impact resistant top layer and to give a better surface finish. road buzz. High modulus carbon can be used to stiffen key area. This has much more to do with frame geometry affecting how forces are transferred to the rider. There's a lot of myths, marketing hype and dubious 'engineering' talk surrounding frame materials. Reviews, buying advice and news. Assembling thin walled tubing also becomes difficult to assemble, with heat from welding affecting heat-treatments and reducing strength in the weld area. Control the geometries and dimensions of the tubing used to build the frame also has a very large influence on ride characteristics. However frames can be designed to be compliant, i.e. Aluminum frame bikes are among the best selling models and according to statistics they represent the segment with the biggest sales volume on the market. The ability to repair steel can often be overlooked. The quality of the layup is very important, with poor bonding between layers in the laminate causing significant weakness. Presently steel or aluminium alloy are used i n cycles. Modifying the resin properties can also be used to improve these properties. Often carbon fibre with different properties will be used in different areas of the frame to tune compliance and stiffness as required. off-road.cc Editorial and general enquiries: info@off-road.cc This alloy contains 94.5% Ti, 3% Aluminium and 2.5% Vanadium, and is used because it combines the variety of benefits of Grade 5 with an ease of machining you don’t get in other similar grades. In theory, it would be possible to build identically handling bikes in any material, matching relative material stiffness through appropriate tubing choice. Nonetheless, aluminium is a more brittle and weaker material than steel, and as such frames tend to be slightly overbuilt to make frames stronger and give a larger safety margin. The design of frames must be carefully considered to withstand real-world scenarios and loading. At the end of the day you have to choose where your priorities lie. Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link. It’s a rather subjective question, with no conclusive answer. The way this is done is know as the layup. Most cycling steel alloys are based on 4130 Chromoly. To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to upgrade your browser. The modulus of the epoxy resin is extremely low, resulting in a brittle material; which consequently affects the method of which the CFRP layers are applied. In reality, while each material has its advantages and disadvantages and ride quality is largely determined by good frame design that works with and understands the properties of the material used. However, nowadays the ride of an aluminium frame can be exceptional. Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer. Fibre orientation can be modified to favour stiffness or compliance for more race or comfort focussed frames. This material offers excellent shock-absorbing properties and is typically found on high-end road or cross-country mountain bikes. Each bicycle frame material offers a list of differing characteristics that will affect the cost, comfort, weight, stiffness, strength and durability. It means that, unlike with metal, a frame tube can have different characteristics along its structure. Steel can also be shaped, though hydroforming for steel is not really applied to bicycle tubing. This involves weaving “dry” carbon fibre around a mandrel – a removable core. Table two will display these common possible materials to be used, in reference to their application (i.e. Carbon frame ride can be controlled in much more detail by varying the layup in different areas of the frame to tailor for compliance or stiffness. The fibres have diameters down to 5 micrometres, much thinner than a human hair. To maintain the same stiffness for a lighter weight, we could use less material in a larger diameter, thinner walled tube. This describes the material’s stiffness – the tendency for it to return to its original shape under load. In metal frames a by-product of building the frame to the required strength is that the tubing will also resist “non-cycling” loads. All of this drives up its cost significantly. The excessive use of more material to reinforce frames resulted in stiff frames before designs became more refined. Before getting in-depth about how a frame comes to be, we should start with an explanation of the raw material. It's worth noting that it's often how the chosen material is used by the engineers and manufacturers that matters most, and this is something that each brand will typically play with. An aluminium frame will use more than twice the volume of material as steel. Instead, additional elements are added to improve the basic properties of the metal. In theory, with thin enough tubing, it would be possible to build a frame with weight on-par with the lightest frames today. Alloys are metals with other elements added to improve properties like strength or stiffness. Some steels, such as 853 by Reynolds actually increase in strength after cooling due to the way they have been treated. One of the unique abilities of carbon fibre is its ability to damp vibration. Carbon fibre Instead tubes are modified mechanically. There are two main aluminium alloys in use in the bike industry today – 6061 and 7005. Their properties are dependent on the direction of load. It should be clear that there is significant expense in developing a high end carbon frame, and the cost is not just associated with manufacture, but also the detailed engineering of a “designed” material. Advertising and commercial: sales@off-road.cc, Mountain bike, bikepacking and gravel bikes. Abstract ² The bicycle frame is the main structure in a cycle to support the external loads acting on it. In the past material and production limitations restricted the minimum wall thickness achievable with steel. By designing a frame to be stiff enough, it will also usually be strong enough to withstand cycling loads. Repeated loading of materials can lead to fatigue failure. These are bundled together to form a tow. Reynolds 525 and 725 use the same base alloy (very similar, if not the same as 4130), but 725 has improved properties due to heat treatment. Usually, Grade 9 Titanium is used for bike frames. This is due to the resin, which effectively filters out high frequency vibration – i.e. I for one, was glad to be able to reattach rack mounts during a bikepacking expedition - not something that is as easy with other materials. Several properties of a material help decide whether it is appropriate in the construction of a bicycle frame: Density (or specific gravity) is a measure of how light or heavy the material per unit volume. However titanium genuinely provides a frame for life. Different riders will have different preferences for what they want in a bike. These are usually uni-directional - the fibres are all aligned in one direction - giving high strength along the axis of the fibres. Materials selection of a bicycle frame using cost per unit property and digital logic methods January 2010 International Journal of Mechanical and Materials Engineering 5(1):95-100 There are some more exotic alloys, including scandium and lithium, in limited use, which aim to reduce frame weight even further. This is why we now see aluminium bikes with the oversized tubes that are needed to give the required stiffness to the frame. 17 Comments. In 1897 Alfred M. Reynolds took out his patent on butted steel bicycle tubes and, for steel aficionados, a frame bearing the Reynolds stamp is a must have to the present day. Look are one of the few manufacturers who use this method, and implement advanced techniques to form complex tube shapes and the complete frame. Hydroforming is used with aluminium tubing to form complex shapes. Titanium has its provenance in the aerospace industry, where it is widely used. The key advantage of carbon fibre is that layups can be tailored to achieve specific ride properties. RTM arguably gives even better control over localised material properties, and can lead to overall higher quality carbon fibre parts. There is no material in the table that has advanta-geous properties in each category, which explains why manufacturers continue to fabricate frames using sev- There will be a further designation indicating the tempering process – often T6 – the alloy has gone through. The elastic modulus, coupled with tubing dimensions is what will influence the stiffness of a frame. Weight, or rather the frame weight, It depends on the density of the material and, of course, frame structure, in particular, its thickness pipes. Carbon fibre, or more properly Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP), is the new kid on the block. A workhorse … Less dense than steel but heavier than aluminium, it also falls roughly in the middle in terms of stiffness. Bicycle frame design is about selecting tubing dimensions to appropriately tailor the stiffness and compliance to the desired ride characteristics. Frames tended to be overbuilt in weld areas to avoid cracking due to fatigue. Titanium. Titanium is a highly desirable material due to its fabled ride quality, supple and bump-absorbing. Whilst a metal will bend before failing completely, when carbon reaches its strength limit, it will fail suddenly. Heat treating can improve material properties – that's heating and cooling the material in a specific way. There is not one material in the table that has advantageous properties in each category, which explains why manufacturers continue to fabricate frames from several different materials. It is more difficult to find butted titanium tubing, though as its popularity increases manufacturers provide more and more options. Adding material in highly stressed areas can also help redistribute stress to minimise the stresses experienced. Failure of titanium frames, like most steel, is incredibly rare, so this is a bike that will surely stand the test of time. Unfortunately it is the case that you get what you pay for, and a carbon frame will be more expensive than a metal equivalent. What Makes Titanium the Cyclists 'Dream Material'? Manufacture quality control is essential. One important thing to keep in mind is that we are optimizing the material properties to fit your priorities for your custom bike frame. The material that frame is made out of has a dramatic effect on the way it rides, its durability, and cost. with different camps exalting (or denouncing) the fabled smooth ride characteristics of steel and titanium, the harshness of aluminium and the stiffness of carbon fibre. Butted tubing, tubing with variations in the wall thickness along its length makes welding easier whilst maintaining thin walls. alloy—frame, foam—helmet, etc). Different steel alloys, such as niobium, mangaloy and of course stainless, are also used. The sheets must be built up in multiple layers - forming a laminate - placed at different angles to withstand different loading directions. The excessive use of more material to reinforce frames resulted in stiff frames before designs became more refined. Steel will rust if neglected – though frames can be treated and manufacturers such as Reynolds produce stainless tubing that largely negates this problem. It is potentially more difficult to identify damage with a carbon frame – where a metal frame will have bent, a carbon frame may have cracks that may not be visible. When a bicycle maker chooses a material to make a bike frame, he or she usually considers the following properties of the material. While as an element titanium is very abundant, it takes a lot of effort to refine and process into the tubing used for frames. Failure is very unlikely but when it does happen is likely to be catastrophic. The pressure during curing aims to remove any voids and creates a cohesive, strong laminate. In contrast metals act like springs and have no significant damping. However durability would suffer significantly, with such thin walled tubing being highly susceptible to denting, damage and buckling. They can withstand tension, but would crumple if compressed. However steel is “density challenged” – frames are usually heavier than their aluminium or titanium equivalents. By “rubberising” the resin, it can absorb more vibration. Indeed on some frames it is possible to visibly squeeze the tube walls together. However many manufacturers do offer crash replacement programmes. The fibres are like ropes, providing most of the strength. For example a double butted modern steel tube may be 0.7mm at either end but 0.4mm along most of the length of the tube. Steel is the most commonly used material in bike frames. deflect under load providing additional comfort. As tubing diameter increases, so does its stiffness. 2009 ASME Human Powered Vehicle Competition Drexel University Philadelphia PA DESIGN REPORT Olin College Human Powered Vehicle Helios CONTENTS, Embedded systems training in bangalore .docx, THE ENERGY APPROPRIATE PERSONAL COMMUTER VEHICLE, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DESIGN II: Product Development Project, Electrical Scooter (Mechanical Engineering Design 1 UiTM). There is an amazing amount of folkloric "conventional wisdom" about bicycle frames and materials that is widely disseminated, but has no basis in fact. What some people describe as dead feeling, others exult as hugely comfortable. With the introduction of ultra-high strength (UHS) steels it has been possible to reduce wall thicknesses, down to 0.38mm with Columbus Spirit tubing. However, aluminium has no limit and given enough loading cycles, will fail under very small stresses. Frame And Fork Materials: Fine frames are built from a myriad of materials. For the purpose of reducing weight Kevlar , glass fibre and carbon & epoxy composite materials are used to make the bicycle frames nowadays. CFRP has incredible strength and stiffness for its weight, allowing very lightweight frames to be built. The reality is that you can make a good bike frame out of any of these metals, with any desired riding qualities, by selecting appropriate tubing diameters, wall thicknesses and frame geometry. In this project the bicycle frame There is little doubt that a carbon frame can be made the lightest, so it wins, assuming you just go by the numbers. Carbon fibre is slightly different, but we will discuss this later. These properties can be seen in Table 1. It's worth noting that it's often how the chosen material is used by the engineers and manufacturers that matters most, and this is something that each brand will typically play with. Which Frame Material is Best? This allows the dimensions and geometry of the tubing to be tailored to provide certain ride characteristics and can also help redistribute stresses in the frame. Strong in the loading/design direction, frames may be quite flexible in another. Metals are isotropic, meaning their mechanical properties are the same in all directions. But compliance in the layup that performs a similar function its stiffness different... Doing this, doubling the diameter results in four times the stiffness and compliance to the they. Higher performing 6Al-4V also exists as 6061 is more ductile, it would be to. Is put inside a die introduction to the required strength is less.! Is about a quarter of the frame also has a reputation of having a ride. Shape and layered around a mandrel – a removable inflatable bladder which applies pressure... 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