Sporting & Leisure Goods

Ultra light - ultra strong - ultra cool

Bar End produced by Composite Insert Moulding
CIM is a new technology, ideal for any injection mouldings which require enhanced strength and stiffness.

Mountain bike bar ends

Product requirements :

• Ultra-lightweight bar ends for mountain bike market.
• Must withstand extreme side loads.
• High quality surface finish and styling.
• High volume production at lowest possible cost.

Solution :

Conventional injection moulding was inadequate to meet the demanding weight, size and strength requirements. The solution was a Composite Insert Moulding (CIM), which fulfils all design criteria and maximises production throughput at minimum unit cost.

This new technology, pioneered by C2 Composites, places a high strength carbon insert within an injection moulding, which fuses and bonds to the injection moulding material. The insert is a thermoplastic stamping which is produced on fully automated machinery, at a rate which exceeds the injection moulding rate. This therefore allows continuous high volume manufacture.

Each bar end contains a small fibre insert positioned at the area of highest loading around the aperture. This increases the overall strength of the injection moulding by 400%, whilst retaining all the benefits of this low cost form of production.

Mountain bike handlebars

Product requirements :

• Ultra-lightweight handlebars (145g) for mountain bike market.
• Must be very strong to withstand 1100lb bending load.
• High quality surface finish and styling.
• High volume production at lowest possible cost.

Solution :

A high strength carbon fibre braid is applied over a very thin aluminium core in a "resin transfer moulding process". The result is a high quality surface finish for a high volume product at the lowest possible cost. Careful engineering of the carbon braid and aluminium core meant the product achieved very demanding weight and strength criteria.

Maintained by Mr. Andrew Commander © 2001.