Prototyping bike designs
Client: Zurich University
Machine: The D.I.Wire Plus
A competition for bike lovers
Martin Schüetz is a design engineer who lectures at the Zurich University of Arts. Though Martin has a background in mechanical engineering, he works within industrial design to explore creative advances in biking. Every year, Martin co-hosts the “Bike Lovers Contest” with his colleagues in Zurich, Switzerland. This competition brings bike enthusiasts from all over the world to see what is new in bike design. The 10-year old “Bike Lovers Contest” focuses on a different topic every year. In 2019, the show focuses on the implementation of new manufacturing methods in classical frame building
Wire based designs
Anyone with a new, handcrafted bike frame design or concept could enter the competition. Each contestant’s design was examined by the judges - uniqueness, creativity, and functionality of the bike frame were some of the criteria that the judges used to rank the submissions. In parallel to the contest state of art Rapid Prototyping Tech was shown and D.I.Wire Plus allowed the visitors to design a wire based bike design within minutes. WireWare’s path mode was used to create their bike profiles out of ⅛” galvanized steel wire.
“As the D.I.Wire started to bend - it was fascinating. The D.I.Wire is a cool, important piece of CNC equipment!”
- Martin Schüetz, Design Engineer, Zurich University of Arts
Results with the D.I.Wire Plus
After understanding how the D.I.Wire Plus worked, the guests were glued to the CNC wire bender - nobody wanted to leave as they attempted to bend different shapes. Martin did not anticipate how much of a success this interactive portion of the contest would be, now that that he knows to use the D.I.Wire Plus for next year’s bike design competition.