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Author Topic: A real bicycle that you can grow?...from nylon?  (Read 5106 times)

Shades

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A real bicycle that you can grow?...from nylon?
« on: May 14, 2011, 07:12 PM »
More for the mechanically inclined:

A link to a bicycle that is 'grown' instead of constructed. :huh:
« Last Edit: May 14, 2011, 07:15 PM by Shades »

Deozaan

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Re: A real bicycle that you can grow?...from nylon?
« Reply #1 on: May 14, 2011, 07:20 PM »
Calling that "growing" is a bit misleading. But the technology is still pretty neat. :Thmbsup:

AndyM

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Re: A real bicycle that you can grow?...from nylon?
« Reply #2 on: May 14, 2011, 08:56 PM »
I think the manufacturing process is earth shaking.  They're not exaggerating when they call it "game-changing technology" and a "paradigm shift".  The mind boggles.

Renegade

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Re: A real bicycle that you can grow?...from nylon?
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2011, 10:29 PM »
Looking at the bike, it instantly make you think of 3D printing, and:

Similar in concept to 3D printing, the bike design is perfected using computer-aided design and then constructed by using a powerful laser-sintering process which adds successive, thin layers of the chosen structural material until a solid, fully-formed bike emerges.

But they don't really explain the difference.

Still, it sounds very cool. I wonder how long it will be before it hits production.
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phitsc

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Re: A real bicycle that you can grow?...from nylon?
« Reply #4 on: May 15, 2011, 04:22 PM »
Calling that "growing" is a bit misleading. But the technology is still pretty neat. :Thmbsup:

Indeed. I expected you can eat it once you've reached your destination.  ;)

JennyB

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Re: A real bicycle that you can grow?...from nylon?
« Reply #5 on: May 16, 2011, 06:20 AM »
Looking at the bike, it instantly make you think of 3D printing, and:

Similar in concept to 3D printing, the bike design is perfected using computer-aided design and then constructed by using a powerful laser-sintering process which adds successive, thin layers of the chosen structural material until a solid, fully-formed bike emerges.

But they don't really explain the difference.

Still, it sounds very cool. I wonder how long it will be before it hits production.

I think the difference is that the layers do not necessarily have to be flat. This is definitely interesting, though nylon is a poor material for a bike. Those bearings may look cool, but they must make for horrendous rolling resistance.
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Stoic Joker

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Re: A real bicycle that you can grow?...from nylon?
« Reply #6 on: May 16, 2011, 07:11 AM »
This is definitely interesting, though nylon is a poor material for a bike. Those bearings may look cool, but they must make for horrendous rolling resistance.

Excellent point. I missed it in the initial read (ok skim). Perhaps that is why they're so large in the hopes that they'll last more than a week.

AndyM

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Re: A real bicycle that you can grow?...from nylon?
« Reply #7 on: May 16, 2011, 08:23 AM »
So next time they'll impregnate the topmost bearing layers with graphite, or use some other material in that area.

What's significant about all this is the nature of the manufacturing process, which, being in an early stage, is evolving.

Next come Replicators (Startrek, not Stargate).  Then Transporters.