Kappius Components uses laser sintering for trailblazing bike hub/drive assembly.
Read: Cyclists Take Industrial 3D Printing for a Spin
Image 1: The Kappius rear hub is a groundbreaking lightweight, durable, oversized design (left). Its carbon-fiber housing, which interfaces with a commercially available gear cassette, contains a drivetrain assembly comprised of three components including an inner pawl ring (center, gray), a toothed drive ring (right), and pawls (not shown). The components are all manufactured from an extremely durable “tool steel” using direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). (Courtesy Kappius Components & Ben Delaney/BikeRadar)
Image 2: This series of images shows the progression from CAD to direct metal laser-sintered (DMLS™) parts for the components of the Kappius hub’s drive assembly: the 3D CAD model (top left) is used to guide the sintering operation in an EOSINT M 270 system; a screenshot from the system’s PSW software (top right) illustrates how parts are laid out on the build platform to maximize the manufacturing run; a 200-watt laser melts the powdered maraging steel (bottom left and middle), joining one layer to the next; and the finished components are covered in excess steel powder (bottom right), which is then removed using compressed air and recycled before final machining and heat-treating steps are performed. (Courtesy Harbec)
Image 4: These CAD-based images show a conventional machined steel core with straight channels (left) and a conformally cooled core with spiral cooling channels (right), which was manufactured using DMLS™. In a test performed by Harbec of different curing times and part shrinkage after ejection from the mold, it was shown that the part was able to be cured more quickly using the conformal curing core while achieving dimensions that more accurately met specifications. In injection molding operations running hundreds of thousands of parts annually, if cure times can be reduced, even by seconds, cycle times follow, allowing for faster production turnaround times and reduced cost. (Courtesy Harbec)
