Lightweight and unbreakable carbon fibre composite mountain bike frames
In 2015, the current company REIN4CED started out as an engineering company at KU Leuven. Today, 20,000 high-quality bicycle frames made of revolutionary carbon fibre composite roll off the site's production line each year.
The classic carbon fibre composite is light, strong and rigid, but also very sensitive to impact. Consider, for example, Formula 1 cars and racing bikes, which are exposed to a high risk of sudden, brittle breakage. REIN4CED has found an innovative solution to this problem by adding small amounts of specially developed steel fibres at specific locations. The result is a deformable, impact-resistant composite material that behaves like metal but is as light as carbon. Although impact causes a visible, small dent, the strength of the frame is hardly affected. REIN4CED has patented its invention.
Another advantage is that there are no more manual, labour-intensive and expensive production processes in the Far East. This eliminates the main disadvantages, which are long overseas transport, high logistics costs and CO₂ emissions, low flexibility and efficiency of the production chain, and lengthy waiting times.
When you consider that REIN4CED works with a multidisciplinary team of academics, researchers and developers from the bicycle industry, aerospace project managers and automotive specialists, it is clear that the Belgian company will conquer other markets after the bicycle world.