The 3D printed airless tyre is put to the test.
Large-format 3D printer manufacturer, BigRep just 3D printed the first airless bicycle tyre with the help of their TPU filament Pro FLEX.
The tyre was a successful prototype to demonstrate the ease and speed, as well as flexibility in which spare parts can be 3D printed. BigRep tested the bicycle tyre on the streets of Berlin on today as a part of their focus on industrial-grade solutions for the mobility industry.
“We were able to replace ‘air’ as a necessity in the tyre by customising the pattern to be one of a three-layered honeycomb design,” said Marco Mattia Cristofori, BigRep Product Designer. “Based on the same principle, the design can be altered to fit the requirements of specific kinds of biking, such as mountain biking and road racing, or for different weather and speed conditions.”
This showcases the potential for 3D printing to develop new complex geometries that could not be produced with traditional production methods. The tyre was printed to scale as a large 1:1 object on the BigRepONE 3D printer, which has a build volume of one cubic metre, without the need for gluing work or any other post-processing.
With FFF 3D printing, it can be a challenge to print with thermoplastic elastomers but with Pro FLEX, it is now possible to print larger flexible parts with strong print bed adhesion and without any issues from detachments.
BigRep’s CEO Stephan Beyer says that beyond bicycles the material has incredibly broad potential: “We have expanded our technical portfolio with a high-impact, high-temperature-resistant material in Pro FLEX, which has higher interlayer-bonding than we have ever seen before, and robust chemical resistance for a range of technical applications. There is a clear use case for flexible parts that can be customised and printed on a needs basis, across med-tech, aerospace, automotive and other industries.”
