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20 Dec 2006  -  France

Composite bicycle frames speeding things up

Time Sport International, based in Charancieu, France is a major composite bicycle frame and accessory manufacturer, making a range of components used by enthusiastic amateurs and sports professionals alike.

With cycling, minimising the weight of the cycle frame and accessories is critical particularly for competitive events; so many structural parts are now made using carbon fibres impregnated with epoxy resins. These produce lightweight, rigid but extremely tough components able to withstand the rigours of cross country and road events such as the cobbled Paris-Roubaix time trial.

Time Sport uses Araldite® epoxy resins to produce a wide range of components in carbon composites including:
- road and cross country pedals
- cycle road frames and forks
- crankshafts
- structure stems
- seat posts.

The engineers at Time Sport use two Araldite epoxy methods to produce these parts:
- The Araldite LY 564 / Aradur® 22962 epoxy system cured at a temperature > 100°C
- The Araldite LY 564 / Aradur 22962 /Hardener XB 3458 epoxy system for curing at temperatures < 100°C

Araldite LY 564 is a low viscosity epoxy resin and Aradur 22962 is a cycloaliphatic polyamine. This amine cured laminating system has the following advantages: very low viscosity which is perfect for injection techniques such as RTM, a long pot life (up to 150 minutes at 23oC) and high reactivity (for example, curing for 15 minutes at 100°C).

With the warm curing system, the amine Hardener XB 3458 is used as an accelerator. This combination permits a lower curing temperature as required for certain parts but allows the press cycle times to remain the same.

“We use Huntsman Advanced Materials products for all our composite applications”,
said Jean-Marc Gueugneaud, Head of Research Department at Time Sport International. “We use them to produce prototypes for testing and practical trials through to finished composite parts.

Also, these two solutions with their different reactivities allow us to modify the press curing temperatures whilst maintaining similar cycle times.

We have also benefited from the technical support of Huntsman Advanced Materials when implementing these systems.

The composite parts produced by Time Sport are used by some of the best known professional cycling teams in France – Quick Step Energetic and Bouygues Telecom – competing in some of the world’s toughest cycling events including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships.

Source : Huntsman