"This is in contrast to production on the previous CO 2 machine, which left a residue even when nitrogen was used.
They go straight to onsite heat treatment," he explains. "The as-machined edges on stainless steel appear polished, so brake discs, for example, need no edge finishing. The company often processes 12mm-thick aluminum tooling plate to produce fixtures for other machines on the shop floor.Ī further advantage of fiber laser cutting, Pate says, is the high cut quality using nitrogen exclusively as the cutting gas. The machine is equally capable of handling much thicker material. It has made a fantastic difference in helping us to meet the sheer volume of orders." "For thinner gauges, compared with an equivalent CO 2 source, the fiber laser produces components three times faster. "We use relatively thin materials, such as 2mm stainless steel for brake discs and up to 6mm aluminum for some sprockets," Pate says. So Lindley Pate, works and production manager at Hope Technology, knew that fiber laser cutting was a maturing technology-so the company installed a 4kW Bystronic BySprint Fiber 3015 machine. Hope Technology's chain rings and brake discs (inset) are used on mountain bikes.īy mid-2015, one of the company's 70 CNC machine tools on the shop floor, a Bystronic BySprint CO 2 laser cutting machine, was struggling to keep up with the factory's 24/7 operation. Now, the brakes are manufactured in the tens of thousands annually, along with sprockets, chain rings, and other components that go onto a mountain bike ( FIGURE 1).įIGURE 1. The business, which was founded in 1989, now employs around 130 people and was based on a quest to make mountain biking safer by developing an alternative to cantilever brakes.įounders Ian Weatherill and the late Simon Sharp, ex-Rolls Royce aero engineers and toolmakers, developed a brake disc inspired by those used on motorcycles.
BARNOLDSWICK, LANCASHIRE, ENGLAND – Hope Technology manufactures aftermarket components for bicycles, exporting half of its rapidly expanding production to more than 40 countries.