Interesting but is there a demand for so many bikes that they need to be manufactured so quickly???? I don’t need my bike completed in 30 mins. I just need one available every 5 years when I go to buy. I have never wanted a bike but been stymied by a shortage.

your factory wouldn't need to just build bikes.

Yes, I know, I was being facetiously shortsighted in the implications

i'm imagining a future - possibly still quite a ways away - where this kind of printing tech is married with a very sophisticated 3d imagining tech to measure you on the spot, get some data points on flexibility or mobility, and then pop you out a bespoke bike.

i had a pair of shoes made this way in switzerland a few years ago: stood on a grid platform, had a series of cameras make a 3d model of my foot, and then the cobbler made a few tweaks here and there based on my input and his wisdom. then - no 3d printer for leather, i don't think - the model was sent off to a workshop in italy. shoes showed up in the mail a few weeks later.

i also had a cap put on a broken molar this way a while back - dentist imaged the tooth, made some tweaks, and hit 'print.' 11 minutes later i had a bespoke ceramic cap. they cemented it in place and a few years later it's still rockin'.

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https://lshtm.academia.edu/MikeCallaghan

http://howtobeswiss.blogspot.ch/

Results are proprietary and testing is expensive. Heard this many times before.

I agree with some of the previous comments about the advances in 3D printing. I was involved with a small amount of 3D printing in college, and in that year alone, the technology available to the market was moving faster than we could learn.

3D printing is not magic. There are set backs with determining the proper processes and stackups and so on and so forth, but in the end its no different than developing a new process for manufacture.

Turn back the clock when the manufacture of carbon fiber bikes hit the market, or electronic shifting was being released, or 12 speed gearing...etc. At that time, there were plenty of people sitting around a computer thinking there as not a way that strands of material glued together would be strong enough to support people, or electronic shifting was feasible or 12 speeds is necessary.

Cervelo would like it, they’d actually have bikes available when they release a new model.

They could also print 650C frames on demand and not have to stock them and lose money from low sales.

Agree completely,Demand is not that high at the moment
Advertising the speed is just to show what this new partnership is capable of doing,this is the main advantage even if not to be used until later
Currently custom builds have a standard turnaround time of weeks per frame or days for parts, this technology is a game changer if able to produce in minutes as stated - Again will there ever be that much demand for custom bikes (head to wheel)

As I said. You'll be seeing that data in the public domain, in publications, within the year. it's not proprietary. It's that researchers need to make a living too and giving out free test data isn't exactly in our best interests.

Anyway, we have tested it. a 99% dense part is certainly possible. You just have to know what you're doing, which is easier said than done