Designing and manufacturing mountain bikes

Designers at a company which makes mountain bikes describe some of the processes and techniques used to construct their range of bike frames.

In the workshop, designers punch out a template for the bike frame from lightweight sheets of aluminium using AutoCAD drawings. They then bend the frame into a three-dimensional shape, before cutting, mitring, belt notching the components to get a clean joint to weld. After all the parts have been welded into place, the frame is cleaned in an acid etch bath, sprayed with an electro-static powder paint, and finished in an oven.