Stylish, safe, and sustainably produced: this year KraussMaffei and partners are presenting a new low-carbon children's bicycle at KraussMaffei’s booth at Fakuma 2023. The new Lion Bike by Marcel Kittel and Tony Martin, both former professional cyclists, features a frame and fork made of high-performance polyamide 6 with 40% recycled carbon fibres, produced by specialist Weber Fibertech on an MX 1600 from KraussMaffei, in combination with a water injection moulding process using PME fluidtec equipment.
WIT is ideal for producing this type of functionally complex, highly integrated plastic components with hollow body construction. Here, for the first time in a bicycle frame, PME uses the mass back-pressure method, in which the melt displaced by the water is pressed back into the plasticising unit and reused in the next shot for the frame or fork. This means that there is no waste during production, which in turn saves material during production and is beneficial for the carbon footprint.
The new Lion bikes have a special paint that makes the frame glow and an unusually large lighting system with daytime running lights thathas been completely integrated into the frame for high visibility. The first finished Lion Bikes will then be available on the market from spring 2024, in time for Easter.