gemacht: Bicycles are a key part of human transport history and, with a largely unchanged fundamenta
gemacht: Bicycles are a key part of human transport history and, with a largely unchanged fundamental design, will play an important future role too. Adoption is only rising with improving infrastructure, the proliferation of city hire schemes, and a wider shift toward sustainable consciousness. Folding bikes streamline this further by bridging public service gaps where final mile trips would otherwise be fulfilled with private alternatives. At Brompton, every compact folding bicycle is made to a custom specification falling within 1 of 6 million combinations. The main frame starts with a batch of prefabricated steel tubes, rods and hinges loaded into jigs. Experienced welders employ the fine skill of brazing, blow torch heat applied to adjoining surfaces and molten brass acting as a glue, to create fine jewellery-like work in progress pieces. Nuanced interpretation is needed for balanced heat transfer across different profiles and thicknesses. Sub-assemblies are then incrementally combined as individual welders mark their unobtrusive coded signatures at each stage for complete traceability. All parts are blast-treated ready for the paint shop and join a conveyor hook system travelling to an isolated room where electrostatically-charged spraying takes place to fully decorate the bare metal. Manual operation continues on a separate line for wheels whereby fine spokes are threaded by hand into hubs and loosely connected to a rim. Loading into an auto-tensioner ensures accurate balancing before wheels roll onto a buffer carousel awaiting end state tyre fitting. Final assembly happens against the clock with a rhythmic rotation of specialist stations affixing smaller parts and fine tuning the two-wheeled cycle. // FH -- source link