VÚTS, a partner of our consortium EDIH Northeast Bohemia, helped the client Posedla s.r.o. with the optimization of the skeleton of bicycle saddles within the Test before invest service.
Client’s requirements
Using advanced digital technologies and numerical models, optimize the composition of the composite skeleton of the bicycle saddle in terms of cost and labor, while maintaining mechanical properties as much as possible.
How we helped
Based on simulation models, two analyses of the saddle skeleton were performed: strength and stiffness. The first simulation focused on the strength of the skeleton under static loading, while the second analysed the distribution of forces and deflections of the skeleton in the transverse and longitudinal directions. The results showed that some variants with fewer layers achieved better mechanical properties than the original composition variant.
A promising result was a modified version of the original skeleton with extended reinforcement (2.2) and two layers of 420 g/m² material. This version has 4.8\% higher load resistance and achieves similar stiffness results to the original version, using two layers less material. For a higher strength skeleton, a variant with UD reinforcement and four layers of 420 g/m² fabric would be a suitable alternative (4,3). Although the thickness in the reinforced section (approximately 2 mm) slightly exceeds the requirements, this configuration achieves the highest strength, with an increase of 13.9\% over the original design. It is expected that the extension of the reinforcement could further increase the strength. Even more effective could be the 5.3 variant with perpendicular UD fibres on the surface and extended reinforcement, which achieves a strength improvement of up to 30 \%.
Another interesting option is the woven variant with UD fibres on the surface (4.1), which gives an improvement of 3.4\% with five layers. However, in a woven fabric with a single layer of UD fibres on the surface, the fibres loosen, creating a visual defect. It was also found that the variants with only UD layers are not suitable due to their asymmetric loading behaviour.
The proposed modifications led to the achievement of the objectives of this collaboration. It has been possible to reduce the number of skeleton layers and optimise the material composition in order to increase the manufacturing efficiency without reducing the mechanical resistance or the stiffness of the bicycle saddle skeleton – on the contrary, in some cases they have been improved.
References
“The cooperation with VÚTS has been exemplary and, thanks to the European Digital Innovation Hub project, very beneficial. It has been possible to optimise the composition of materials in order to increase the efficiency of production without compromising the mechanical resistance or the stiffness of the bicycle saddle skeleton, which we very much welcome.”
Martin Řípa, co-founder of Posedla s.r.o.
Source : https://posedla.com/
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