JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #116 - October 2017 - 53

Taking the lead with composites

reliability. Another plus was
the intuitive user interface and
the Zünd Cut Centre (ZCC)
workflow software, which is
well designed and exceedingly
user-friendly. Because of this,
the operators were trained and
became comfortable with the
equipment very quickly. The
open interface also makes the
Zünd G3 very easy to integrate
in an existing production
workflow.
Even though "carbon manufacturing", as the name implies, involves many steps that
are still performed manually,
cutting by hand was out of the
question. After all, the cutter
is able to process the material
so much faster than would be
possible manually, using templates. Nevertheless, production speed was not the primary
concern for the company. Even
more important than performance were the precision and
reliability the Zünd G3 cutter
could offer. For the super
lightweight parts Bike Ahead
makes, fibre orientation is
extremely important. The material must be cut at precisely
the perfect angle to the fibre.
At the same time, the cutter's

high precision also guarantees
perfect repeatability.
The company also depends
on the Zünd G3 cutter for
maximum material usage and
a high level of automation.
State-of-the-art nesting functionalities ensure optimal part
placement, even for parts with
highly complex contours. This
reduces setup time, optimizes
yield, and reduces waste.
It quickly runs into some serious money when you mis-cut
materials and end up creating
twice the amount of labour.
This has not happened to Bike
Ahead in the five years they
have had a Zünd cutter. What's
more, once the company has
started a cutting job, the cutter
completes it all by itself, without any further intervention.
This frees up the operator for
other tasks. The machine operates so reliably the team can let
it run all by itself without any
qualms.
In the rare event a technical
problem arises, things have
to get taken care of quickly.
Because of Zünd's extensive
service and distribution network, Bike Ahead can count
on a technician being there in
short order. This, along with

Bike Ahead relies on state-of-the-art Zünd cutting technologies for cutting
prepreg components

the machine's easy serviceability, helps keep downtime to a
minimum.
From zero
to hundreds of thousand
Five years after its founding,
Bike Ahead has become a
known entity well beyond the
borders of Germany; nonetheless, resting on its laurels is not
what the young team is fond
of doing. It is determined to
make European manufacturing of bike components for the
premium market viable and
profitable again. This will only
be possible if the company continues to minimize the manual
components of the production
processes, which is why it must
continue to automate.
The way things are, Bike Ahead
has enough capacity to make a
few hundred bike frames per

year, besides its other manufacturing projects. Within
five years, the company would
like to be able to produce a
few thousand per year. At that
point, it has become interesting even to producers geared
towards higher volumes. The
production numbers in Asia
continue to be out of reach,
but Bike Ahead is convinced
there are many companies
who would like to bring
more manufacturing back to
Europe. Modern technologies,
flexibility, top-quality design
and construction, as well as
shortened supply chains, are
just a few of the advantages the
European market has to offer.
And these should only gain in
importance as time goes on.
More information:
www.zund.com
www.bike-ahead-composites.de

About Zünd Systemtechnik AG
Zünd Systemtechnik AG, a family-owned business with
operations worldwide, specializes in developing and
manufacturing digital cutting systems. The Zünd name
represents Swiss quality and is synonymous with precision, performance, and reliability. Since 1984, Zünd has
been developing, manufacturing, and marketing modular cutting systems and is now globally recognized as
market leader.

The Zünd G3 cutter is extremely productive, with impressive cutting precision and
reliability

N°116 October 2017

/ jec composites magazine

http://www.zund.com http://www.bike-ahead-composites.de

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #116 - October 2017