Manufacturing Technologies - Assignment 2 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Manufacturing Technologies - 2 - Assignment Example The late1980s was marked with intense marketing of a cast magnesium frame (Anon, 1987 and Anon, 1988). Despite the fact about the difficulties regarding the proof of the long term success as a product, this however had quite little to do with the functional design and method of manufacture of the frame (Anon, 1987: 235-236). Today, there is many more research being conducted in this production field which ultimately aims at improving the existing models and bring into market more sufficient models that are of high quality. Critical aspects in the processes of manufacturing sequence for a bicycle frame Bicycle manufacturing involves a series of process which can be classified in to primary stage and secondary stage. The primary stage safe ultimately involves the hardware part of manufacturing with the main aim being the creation of the structure of the bicycle while the secondary part can also be looked upon has the finishing stage of manufacturing a bicycle which involves the paintin g of the bicycle among other small things that are done to a bicycle before it is ready to be used (Springfield Bicycle Manufacturing Co. (Boston, Mass.), 1888). The process of manufacturing a bicycles frame involves a sequence of processes. There are two main sequence processes that are followed in the manufacturing of the frame namely, the casting technique and the forming-joining technique. The casting technique is an innovation of British bicycle and was designed by Frank Kirk. It is designed using computer. The casting technique used a magnesium alloy which was more efficient and advantageous as compares to steel-tubed diamond bicycle frame. Magnesium alloy casting proved to e twice as rigid as steel-tubed bicycle frame, it was more aerodynamic, cheaper to produce (Linda, C, and Ernest, 1996). It is also lighter and cheaper to produce in the long run. Another advantage of the casting technique was that it produce a bicycle frame which could not flex, it did not produce energy t hat was expended to produce propel the machine and it was made to be high stiff by running the down to tube along the axis from the head tube to the rear axle. Casting production method was an improvement seen it facilitated the production of identical frames with identical performance that were more durable (Springfield Bicycle Manufacturing Co. (Boston, Mass.), 1888). Casting production of the bicycle frame proved to be more sufficient in terms of its function despite its low cost. Another advantage of the casting of a bicycle frame was that the frame had special inserts which allowed the insertion of all components parts of a bicycle such as the brakes and it was also composed of a carbon fiber hanger which enabled the mechanism to be swurfg clear so that the wheel can removed and replaced more easily and fast (Yu-Shan, Ming-Ji, Lin, and Chang, 2009: 207-217) The production of bicycle frame was boosted by development of the a large pressure die-casting machine which produces larg e amount of bicycle frame over a short period of time with the production of one frame being estimated to take one minute and annual production being 200000 frames. The process of making a bicycle frame is very complex. It involves joining tubes together by brazed lugs where more lugs are built in order to