Manufacturing of composite bicycle handlebar Peter Mörsky Degree Thesis Plastteknik 2016 EXAMENSARBETE Arcada Utbildningsprogram: Plastteknik Identifikationsnummer: 14616 Författare: Peter Mörsky Arbetets namn: Manufacturing of composite bicycle handlebar Handledare (Arcada): Rene Herrmann Uppdragsgivare: Arcada – Nylands svenska yrkeshögskola Sammandrag: Syftet med detta examensarbete var att undersöka hur det är möjligt att tillverka ett cy- kelstyre ut ur komposit material i Arcada – Nylands svenska yrkeshögskolas utrymmen. Vanligtvis tillverkas styre formade ihåliga sömlösa rör med industriella maskiner som är inte tillgängliga på Arcada. På grund av detta bestämde det att tillverka en expanderande laminerings form. Denna form fungerar på följande vis, ett flätat komposit material kom- binerat med harts i sock form lagas runt en expanderbar blåsa. Blåsan med material runt den lagas in i en form som har en kavitet form av ett styre. När blåsan uppfylls med hjälp av tryckluft så expanderar komposit materialet så att den får formen av formens kavitet. När hartset har härdat kan formen öppnas och färdiga styret kan tas bort. För detta jobb tillverkades två former, den första var en prototyp form var över 20 test lamineringar tillverkades. Baserat på den information som erhållits från test lamineringarna konstrue- rades och byggdes den andra och slutliga full storleks form för styret. En av de viktigaste informationen med testen lagade med prototyp formen var att slutliga formen måste vara ett sluten konstruktion. Med hjälp av ett sluten form konstruktion var det möjligt höja på trycket upp till 7 bar, med högre truck expanderar komposit materialet bättre inne i for- mens kavitet. Några problem uppkom med de första testen som lagades med full storleks form för styret. Problemet var att komposit materialet inte expanderade tillräckligt som ledde till stora lamineringsfel på styret. Problemet löstes med att forma komposit materi- alet till formen av styret före formverktyget stängdes. Med användning av denna metod var det möjligt att producera högkvalitativa cykelstyren. Alla slutliga styren tillverkades med hjälp av 6K och 3K flätade kolfiber sock material kombinerat med epoxiharts. Slut- liga produktens yta granskades med hjälp av ett optiskt mikroskop för att hitt potentiella mindre laminerings fel. Cykelstyrets böjnings styvhet testades också med hjälp av en materialkontroll maskin. Nyckelord: Tillverkning, Cykelstyre, Komposit, Kolfiber, Form Sidantal: 48 Språk: Engelska Datum för godkännande: 28.4.2016 DEGREE THESIS Arcada Degree Programme: Plastteknik Identification number: 14616 Author: Peter Mörsky Title: Manufacturing of composite bicycle handlebar Supervisor (Arcada): Rene Herrmann Commissioned by: Arcada University of Applied Sciences Abstract: The aim of this thesis work was to study how it is possible to manufacture a composite handlebar in the Arcada University of Applied Sciences premises. Composite handlebar shaped seamless tubes are normally manufactured using a filament winder, pultruder or a filament braiding machine. Not having the possibility to use these kind of machinery, it was decided to design and manufacture an expanded lamination mould in which the han- dlebar could be produced. An expanded lamination mould works by placing a bladder with composite sleeve material combined with resin around it inside a mould that has a cavity shaped like a handlebar. The bladder is then filled up using air pressure so that the compo- site material will expand and get the shape of the moulds cavity. When the resin is cured the mould can be opened and the finished hollow handlebar can be taken out. For this work two expanded lamination moulds where built, the first one was a small pro- totype mould in which over twenty test lamination were made. With the knowledge given from the test lamination a full sized handlebar mould was built. One of the most important things learned from the test lamination was that the full sized mould had to be built to a closed mould construction. By having a closed mould construction it was possible to use up to 7 bars of pressure, using high pressure the composite sleeve material can expand better inside the moulds cavity. There were some problems to get the composite material to expand to the whole moulds cavity in the first few lamination test made using the full sized handlebar mould. This lead to having large lamination faults on the handlebar. The problem was solved by pre-forming the material to the shape of the cavity before closing the two mould halves. Using this method it was possible to produce high-quality bicycle handlebars. All the full sized handlebars was made using 6K and 3K carbon fibre braided sleeve material combined with epoxy resin. The final products surface quality was in- spected using an optical microscope to find potential minor lamination faults. Using a ma- terial testing machine a full sized carbon fibre bicycle handlebars bending stiffness was also tested. Keywords: Manufacturing, Composite, Handlebar, Mould, Carbon fi- bre, Lamination, Bladder Number of pages: 48 Language: English Date of acceptance: 28.4.2016 INNEHÅLL / CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 9 1.1 Composite bicycle handlebar ........................................................................................ 9 1.2 Objectives .................................................................................................................... 11 2 LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................... 11 2.1 Manufacturing of seamless composite profiles ........................................................... 11 2.1.1 Pultrusion/Pullwinding ......................................................................................... 11 2.1.2 Filament winding .................................................................................................. 12 2.1.3 Filament braiding ................................................................................................. 14 2.1.4 Dry filament braiding ............................................................................................ 15 2.1.5 Wet filament braiding ........................................................................................... 15 2.2 Expanded lamination process ..................................................................................... 16 2.3 Composite materials .................................................................................................... 18 2.4 Product shapes ............................................................................................................ 19 2.5 Stiffness and Strength ................................................................................................. 21 3 METHOD ............................................................................................................. 23 3.1 Prototype ..................................................................................................................... 23 3.1.1 Part - shape ......................................................................................................... 23 3.1.2 Mould – for prototype........................................................................................... 24 3.1.3 Manufacturing procedure .................................................................................... 27 3.2 Full size handlebar ...................................................................................................... 30 3.2.1 Part-Shape .......................................................................................................... 30 3.2.2 Mould ................................................................................................................... 31 3.2.3 Manufacturing procedure .................................................................................... 34 4 ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................... 37 4.1 Surface defects ............................................................................................................ 37 4.2 Bending stiffness ......................................................................................................... 39 5 RESULTS ............................................................................................................ 42 6 DISCUSSIONS .................................................................................................... 43 7 CONCLUSIONS .................................................................................................. 43 8 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER WORK ............................................................ 44 9 REFERENCES .................................................................................................... 45 Figures Figure 1: Drawing of the full sized handlebar. ................................................................. 9 Figure 2: K-Force flat bar. [1] ........................................................................................ 10 Figure 3: Pullwinding machine. [4] ................................................................................ 12 Figure 4: Filament winding machine. [6] ....................................................................... 13 Figure 5: Maypole dance [8] .........................................................................................