JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #107 - August/September 2016 - 37

Canyon bicycles: a business & technological success

Fig. 2: Safety first, each
fork and handlebar do
through checking

must be expressed through design. Industrial
and stylistic design are closely linked to the
mechanical design, and the different disciplines must absolutely interconnect. As for
software tools, Canyon uses Solid Works for
design and simulation and Rhino for surface
modelling. For composites, the manufacturing aspect is just as important as the design,
so Canyon has developed a battery of tests to
ensure the reliability of its products.
Ten people work full-time in the test laboratory at the Koblenz headquarters on a large
range of tests that include international and
national standards, as well as Canyon's own
criteria: static & dynamic tests, stiffness,
weight, fatigue (life cycle - up to 100,000 cycles x 3), falling mass test (simulates crash to
anticipate and prevent bike failure), and computer tomography (CT) scan. The company
has developed a full range of test machines
in partnership with the University of Pforzheim. About 50 of these machines have been
distributed to five different test laboratories:
two in Germany and three at the company's
Asian production sites. Canyon was the first
bicycle manufacturer to introduce the use of
CT scan (X-ray imaging, Figure 2) in its factories in 2011. It is still one of the only ones
to have this type of equipment in house. It
recently duplicated this equipment in Asia so
as to more closely follow its composite production sites and be quicker to respond. All
R&D parts are subjected to this test to verify

Focus
Canyon Bicycle GmbH:
key facts and figures
Annual sales: 100+ million euros
Global workforce: 800 people
Development team (including composite
engineers): 35 people
Peak production: 450 bicycles/day
Carbon fibre recycling

design compliance. What is exceptional is
that all of the brand's forks and handlebars are
inspected to verify the absence of hidden defects through measurement of the tube walls,
providing a safety guarantee for the user cyclist. The CT-scan images are archived and
each of the brand's articles has a QR Code for
complete traceability. Each year, destructive
testing is used on some 15,000 parts all the
way to part failure, and 45,000 parts are CTscanned in Koblenz.
Through innovative stylistic and industrial
design and testing programmes, Canyon has
racked up more than just sporting victories,
with more than 100 awards, superlative test
performance (including 33 "bicycle of the
year" titles conferred by cycling magazines),
the Good Design Award from the Chicago
Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and
Design, the iF International Forum Design's
iF Product Design Award, and Germany's
Red Dot Design Award. Canyon develops
its own frames, saddle seat posts, handlebars,
handlebar stems, and even complete cockpits
for time-trial (Figure 3).

gistics and is located 7 kilometres away from
the old one, where the headquarters remain.
The new plant follows the trend of the Industrie 4.0 programme (a German government
initiative) with greater flexibility and higher
productivity, thanks in particular to the new
computerized production processes. The
18-million-euro investment is making it possible to produce up to 450 bicycles per day
(at peak production) and to dispatch 600 bicycle orders and 2,000 orders for bicycle accessories per day. To streamline the process,
each bicycle model is produced in batches.

The future
Canyon is already on the cutting edge and intends to stay there. The company is working
on all aspects: aerodynamics, materials, 3D
impressions. Weight is no longer a problem,
thanks to expertise in composites and the
rules of competitive sports (Editor's note:
for road racing, the UCI imposes a 6.8 kg
minimum weight for each bicycle). For better performance, research is oriented towards
more aerodynamics and comfort, a better
stiffness-to-weight ratio, and improving impact resistance. The use of thermoplastics,
infusion and RTM are not excluded if they
add value for the user.
Canyon has been partnering with CFK Valley Strade Recycling since 2012 to recycle
carbon fibre, the objective being to move
towards zero waste by incorporating all production "waste" into the manufacture of new
finished parts. The company would like to
develop this zero waste culture.
More information:
www.canyon.com

Cutting-edge manufacturing
and logistics
All prepregs used by Canyon are manufactured (impregnation of fabrics by resin) at its
Chinese and Taiwanese parts manufacturers'
sites. The parts are then subjected to CT-scan
in Asia or at Koblenz, or to destructive testing
at regular production intervals or by picking.
All assembly is done in Germany, where all
of the orders are processed and dispatched.
To accommodate its growth, Canyon inaugurated a new 22,000-m² plant in 2015. This
"Canyon.Factory", as it is called, is on the
cutting edge in terms of production and loNo107 August - September 2016

Fig. 3: Canyon's fully integrated Time Trial bicycle

/ jec composites magazine

http://www.canyon.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #107 - August/September 2016