Development of Carbon Composite Bike Fork Using Finite Element Analysis and a New Pressure Molding Process

The aim of this study was to develop a new carbon composite part for a road bike. Through finite element analysis, an optimum structure of the bike fork including a lay-up sequence of each ply was obtained. The designed part was manufactured using a new press molding process called a "double blowing process", which uses dual air bladders to remove voids inside the resin. The mechanical properties of the composite fork were characterized and compared with the analysis results, showing a reasonable agreement between them. The failure analysis was carried out using the Tsai-Wu criterion, demonstrating that the composite bike fork was well designed using the current methodology involving prototype design based on expert knowledge, refined design using finite element method, manufacture of the design part, and comparison between the experiment and simulation.