Electric Bike Fairing Pannier Tailbox LED Lighting System

[freebeard]

I would like to use injection molded polyethylene

Had you considered vacuum molding? Here's an example on Polymetal of how you could blow and fold a box with rounded edges.



With a Polymetal monocoque might you eliminate the brazed frame?

[AviationMetalSmith]

The M318 Dashboard with phone holder.


M318 Dashboard with phone.


M321 Dashboard Layout


M318 builders photo


Air horn that is attached to the fairing, unfortunately an electric horn would kill the battery.



These are low to medium resolution sized images.

[AviationMetalSmith]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Had you considered vacuum molding? Here's an example on Polymetal of how you could blow and fold a box with rounded edges.



With a Polymetal monocoque might you eliminate the brazed frame?

I don’t know about polymetal. Do you mean a monocoque?
I figured out how to bend Coroplast, using a steam iron to heat the inside of the piece to about 320°F or 155°C. Recommend leaving a sheet of parchment paper between the iron and the plastic, just to be safe.
And I tried heating the outside , but that doesn’t work as good as heating the inside. I use an infrared thermometer to check that the sheet is hot enough all across along the line of the bend.

[freebeard]

Yes. Polymetal/MaxMetal/Alumapanel are a class of composite materials. Typically a 3mm thermoplastic core with .007" aluminium* skins and a baked enamel finish.

The samples I showed were sheared, rolled and braked on a bench-mounted hand-powered tool with an 18" lever arm. The braking was least successful as I did not score the line on the inside first.

The seam across the curve was joined with a Plastruct H-channel.

nudo.com/p_polymetal.php

*vBulletin enforces British spelling.

[Grant-53]

I am always looking at inexpensive and commonly available composite materials. My primary reference is "Successful Composite Techniques" by Keith Noakes (1989). The spacing of relief cuts on the inside of a curve are a function of the curve radius desired and the thickness of the material.

[AviationMetalSmith]

Turn Signals
Directional Indicators
TEST to see if gif files work

[AviationMetalSmith]

New


Paper from India demonstrates advantage of aerodynamic fairing for bicycle

[AviationMetalSmith]

Update on projects:
The latest bike has a Tailbox with LED lights, but has a milk crate instead of a fairing. I don’t know why aerodynamic fairings for bicycles aren’t catching on. But I’m gaining experience at rapid prototyping if the field starts opening up. May be a market for ebike accessories in the future. Could actually measure efficiency of a fairing by logging an ammeter on an ebike with a 250 watt motor, more scientifically precise than timing the 200 meter sprints at bicycle races, IMHO

[AviationMetalSmith]

Update: While shopping at Polymer shapes, the sales people suggested a new material, only available since 2018, called BUBBLE-X , Polypropylene Honeycomb.

I tried to make one of my 15” cube pannier / Tailbox units, but the honeycomb is completely different than Coroplast.

Let me try to post photos

[AviationMetalSmith]

Test

This is 5mm Polypropylene Honeycomb from BUBBLE-X production

You could not do this with Coroplast .