In 2019, the protection of a 3D printing-enabled bike saddle had a reporter pondering.
Carbon and Fizik had simply unveiled the newest success story to come back out of Carbon’s Lattice Engine: The Adaptive bike saddle with 3D printed padding, the place the power return properties of Carbon’s EPU 41 materials and zonal cushioning traits of a lattice construction mixed to offer higher consolation to cyclists.
It barely had an opportunity to show out its promise when consideration was turning to the longer term.
“Ultimately,” a CyclingNews article learn, “an in-store system might gather customers’ pressure-mapping. This knowledge can then be fed again to the 3D printers on the Fizik manufacturing unit earlier than a accomplished unit is shipped direct-to-consumer.”
When 3D printing functions hit the press, the creativeness tends to stretch its legs, picturing all types of digitally automated workflows, processes and practices for the event and manufacturing of, for instance, personalised items. What CyclingNews projected again in 2019 has lengthy been considered one of additive manufacturing’s largest guarantees. Most of us have been round these components lengthy sufficient to know that they aren’t at all times fulfilled. However this one was.
5 years on from the launch of the Adaptive bike saddle, Fizik has launched the One to One saddle – a personalized seat engineered to go well with the rider’s form and magnificence. This newest product iteration nonetheless leans on Carbon’s 3D printing providing – Fizik operates a Carbon L1 printer – however has added gebioMized, a frontrunner in stress map knowledge, to the equation too.
The method now sees a stress sensor mat seize 64 knowledge factors pertaining to the rider’s form, positioning and driving type, with the knowledge being transferred to Carbon via an API in lower than an hour. The Carbon Customized Manufacturing Software program – inclusive of Carbon’s Design Engine – then kicks into gear, gathering the enter knowledge and producing a 3D printable file that’s despatched on to the print queue of the Carbon L1 machine sitting in Fizik’s manufacturing unit. Every step of this course of – right down to the serial quantity and half monitoring – happens sequentially with out the necessity for operator enter.
What arrives with the buyer is a saddle distinctive to them.
“All of those One to One Fizik saddles have the identical quantity,” Andrew Sink, an Utility Engineer at Carbon, tells TCT. “What we’re doing is we’re modulating the density in numerous areas, particularly for riders primarily based on that stress map suggestions. There’s a very excessive degree of customisation in every saddle primarily based on the place you need that zonal density.”
The lattice construction used for Fizik saddles can be distinctive to this specific mission, with the design primarily based on the traits of the EPU 41 materials. Carbon’s Design Engine software program makes use of this construction as a baseline, with the stress map dictating the place modulations are made to make sure the latticed saddle padding gives totally different responses in numerous zones.
That is necessary since a smooth saddle utilizing the identical foam from the nostril to the again is counter intuitive. What’s going to possible occur is the rider’s ischial tuberosities (sit bones) will sink via the smooth padding, hit the shell and pinch, inflicting discomfort.
“There are physique components touching the saddle that wants totally different form of assist,” explains Alex Locatelli, Product Supervisor at Fizik. “In case you are sitting on the ischial bones, then the bones can assist extra stress with out even noticing. However should you rotate your pelvis on the saddle, after which your smooth tissues are squeezing on the saddle, then you possibly can really feel ache, numbness, discomfort. And that discomfort might [cause people to] quit biking.”
The method developed in partnership with Carbon and gebioMized is working to deal with these points. Utilizing gebioMized’s sensor mapping expertise has allowed Fizik to measure how cyclists generate stress on the saddle, the place that stress is being generated and the way intense the stress is. That then informs the precise form and density of the lattice construction that will probably be included into the saddle’s padding.
“On the ischial bones, the padding is far firmer; you want extra stability,” Locatelli says. “However whereas rotating on the saddle, the padding has turn into a lot softer, so that you don’t have numbness. The overall consolation of the saddle is significantly better. With this expertise, we may be so exact. You will discover the fitting spot the place there’s a bit little bit of pointless stress after which we are able to compensate for that with the expertise.”
Not solely can Fizik be exact, nevertheless it can be versatile, faster and, in principle, hit greater scales. So far as Fizik can inform, it’s the solely saddle producer that has entry to an in-house 3D printer able to printing a number of merchandise in a single construct, with post-processing carried out in a single day and customized merchandise circled in a few weeks.
The success is owed to the upfront work carried out by the automated workflow, which serves to cut back design iterations, validate lattice shapes, and go from printing a number of components per rider to ship a repeatable course of per saddle.
As Sink explains: “The way in which this course of works is as soon as we now have the saddle geometry, and that is the lattice construction that performs a particular method in response to some baseline, we now have a lattice that we perceive and characterise. Once we undergo the scaffolding and apply the transformations for the customized lattice, the printability of the file doesn’t change. There’s no second iteration required, there’s no print testing, or something like that. The lattice has been validated, so your customized saddle and my customized saddle, should you take a look at them, you’d be capable of see that they’re totally different, however whenever you look very rigorously on the lattice construction, you gained’t see any defects or damaged struts as a result of we’ve already validated the lattice itself.”
What we’re left with is a lighthouse utility for Carbon and a dream come true for Fizik. Since work began on 3D printing saddles, the tip aim has been to ship customised merchandise at a worth level that gained’t deter customers.
In 2019, considered one of Locatelli’s first duties as a member of the Fizik staff was to discover the feasibility of 3D printing for bike saddles, procure materials and lattice samples from Carbon, and spend a few weeks in California to immerse himself within the expertise. 5 years on, the consultants in making saddles and the consultants in making lattices have pooled their know-how to show 3D printing’s promise right into a actuality.
The Fizik One to One saddle is obtainable for customers to purchase from 25 sellers all over the world. And so they’re doing so. And so they’re coming again for a second. And a 3rd. It’s good going for a corporation simply 5 years into its additive manufacturing journey.
“Again then, it was a guess as a result of the expertise was costly and even when the saddle prices between 300-400 Euros, our margin is mainly not so good as the margin we make on normal saddles,” Locatelli says. “However we needed to check the market and see if the riders would react to this new expertise. And we had been shocked as a result of the suggestions from the market was very, very constructive. Some clients order the customized saddle and after a few weeks they need one other one for one more bicycle. These days, 3D printed saddles are the saddles that we promote probably the most due to the consolation that the expertise can present.”
This text initially appeared inside TCT Europe Version Vol. 32 Challenge 6 and TCT North American Version Vol. 10 Challenge 6. Subscribe right here to obtain your FREE print copy of TCT Journal, delivered to your door six occasions a 12 months.