Singletracks Mountain Bike Podcast How Carbon Fiber Rims Work, and What Makes FusionFiber Different
May 30, 2023
38:40
Travis Tomczak is the Global Marketing Director at Forge + Bond. The company manufactures bike wheels and accessories using a lightweight material known as FusionFiber.
- How does carbon fiber rim manufacturing generally work?
- What are some of the challenges associated with carbon fiber manufacturing?
- Are there limitations in terms of how the material can be used, or how it performs?
- How is FusionFiber different from carbon fiber in terms of the materials used and the manufacturing process?
- How are sheets of FusionFiber manufactured?
- How is a sheet of FusionFiber shaped into a product at Forge+Bond, for example a rim?
- Are there any performance advantages of FusionFiber over traditional carbon fiber?
- Is it more expensive to manufacture rims from FusionFiber than carbon fiber?
- Is FusionFiber infinitely recyclable, or does the material degrade each time it's recycled? Can the scraps or recycled rims, for example, be used to create new rims?
- Where can consumers recycle their FusionFiber rims?
- With so many different polymer choices and layups available, could a particular blend of FusionFiber make sense for handlebars or even bike frames?
- What is Forge+Bond's connection to CSS Composites, the company that produces FusionFiber rims for brands like Evil and Revel?
- With such a new material and technology, what sort of product testing has Forge+Bond done? How do you handle product warranty claims?
- What's next for Forge+Bond?
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