Arevo – the world’s first 3D-printed carbon fiber bike body

Silicon Valley composites manufacturer Arevo will display the world’s first 3D-printed carbon fiber unibody production bike frame. At the stand of manufacturing partner Oechsler AG (Messe Friedrichshafen – Hall A1 – 508) at Eurobike 2019 in Friedrichshafen, Germany, September 4–7. The company will also display the world’s first 3D printed thermoplastic rim, designed by industrial designer Bill Stephens of StudioWest.

Arevo also is offering demonstration rides on an e-bike featuring this innovative frame and material, similar to that announced earlier this year at the Sea Otter Classic in California.

Further, the company will announce next week a new e-bike frame design and a new customer for it. This customer, a bike industry leader based in the Netherlands, will display this new e-bike in the Eurobike exhibition hall. 

Arevo is making a significant impact on the bike manufacturing industry – and in areas such as urban mobility – via its Arevo DN technology, which  is unique in the additive manufacturing (AM) 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. 

For instance, the Arevo DNA AM process takes the design and final manufacture of a bike frame from 18 months to just a few days. With a significant reduction in product development costs. 

Other benefits of Arevo technology include:

• True serial, volume production of AM-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.

Stephens has worked closely with Arevo for more than a year now and will elaborate upon these concepts in a presentation entitled. “3D Printing Carbon Fiber Frames for Production,” on Thursday, September 5th, 11:00–11:45 AM. 

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

“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’.”