Abstract
Since the beginning of the 21st century, human-powered vehicles are increasingly seen as an attractive alternative to solve some of the problems associated with mobility in major cities. Firmly rooted in Northern Europe’s Social and cultural behaviour, cargo bicycles are beginning to spread all over the globe and, in this sense, it is expectable a global outbreak on this market.A cargo bike that considers the use of a polymer as a raw material to build its frame opens a new window of opportunities for new and disruptive designs. A frame like this raises some new shape and structural challenges. But by taking advantage of existing technologies and combining them, made it possible to achieve results that exceeded by far the initial expectations.It is not intended to reinvent the bicycle, neither to propose it for new uses, others already addressed these issues. Instead, the goal is to redesign this machine, exploring new frame designs, to adopt Polypropylene as a structural material and explore injection moulding as a manufacturing processes.
Highlights
It is noticeable, from the beginning of this century, an increasing interest for mobility solutions alternative to the automobile
Initiatives started to sprout, being the main promoters, of these new initiatives, organizations like the: Portuguese Federation of Cycle Tourism and Bicycle Users (FPCUB, 2014), the “Lisboa Ciclável” platform promoted by the Lisbon Council (CML, 2014), the Portuguese branch of the movement “Massa Crítica” (Anon., 2014), associations like MUBI (MUBI, 2014), the “de Bike para o Trabalho” (Bike Anjo, 2014) initiative, and the cycle of congresses for soft mobility promoted by ABIMOTA LEA
Examples of other big players are India with 15 millions of units produced in 2001 (AICMA, 2002), the European Union (EU) with 11 milions of bicycles manufactured in 2012 (COLIPED, 2013), Brazil with 4 millions produced in 2012 (ABRACICLO, 2013), 2 millions produced in Japan in 2008 (IBF, 2014), and within the United States (USA) a retail market that sold 16 million bicycles in 2013 (NBDA, 2014)
Summary
From the beginning of this century, an increasing interest for mobility solutions alternative to the automobile. In North European states like Holland, Denmark and Sweden, this reality is completely different These countries are taking the lead in alternative mobility solutions. It was possible to determine, from previous analysis, a set of competitive attributes and specifications These were considered and included in the conceptual proposal. Concept selection At this point, it became necessary to set a course of action and define a final design for a consensual proposal This could be one of the developed proposals or a completely new one resulting from the merge of existing ideas. Concept testing The main concern at this stage, was to give an assertive answer to uncertainty in critical components developed for the digital prototype In these case the prime tool to deal with this uncertainty was finite element analysis through computer aided engineering (CAE). Examples of other big players are India with 15 millions of units produced in 2001 (AICMA, 2002), the European Union (EU) with 11 milions of bicycles manufactured in 2012 (COLIPED, 2013), Brazil with 4 millions produced in 2012 (ABRACICLO, 2013), 2 millions produced in Japan in 2008 (IBF, 2014), and within the United States (USA) a retail market that sold 16 million bicycles in 2013 (NBDA, 2014)
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