Total Design Freedom. Massive Cost Savings.

A Groundbreaking Production and Assembly Technology

 Lighter, more stable and fully repairable, titanium frames produced by the new VER-TEC technology are setting new industry benchmarks in e-bike design. Weighing just 13.8 kg, the Möve Avian is the world’s first titanium e-bike with an in-tube battery. Unlike aluminum frames, it requires zero welding or rework. And unlike carbon frame constructions, it opens up entirely new possibilities for innovative designs and material recycling. It’s all made possible thanks to a breakthrough manufacturing technique designed in collaboration with Sika.

3D Printing and Cutting

The titanium lug sets for 20 Avian bike frames can be 3D printed in just 24 hours. And each frame’s tube set can be cut in just five minutes, reducing the manual labor required for component production to a bare minimum. To further reduce waste, top tube off-cuts are also used for other parts such as the frame’s titanium fork. 

2-Minute Weld-free Assembly

Key to the frame’s ultralight design is the extremely minimal wall thickness of all titanium parts. The 3D-printed lugs, for example, range from 0.4 to 0.9 mm in wall thickness, while the hydro formed tubes are just 0.5 mm thick. Because these titanium wall dimensions are too thin to be welded, the entire frame is assembled according to a plug-in principle that takes just two minutes to complete.

5-Minute Adhesive Injection

All of the plug-in connections have been carefully designed with a geometrically designed adhesive chamber. A two- component SikaPower® structural adhesive, adapted from many years of proven performance in car body construction, is then injected through a small 1 mm aperture. This innovative bonding process, which takes just 5 minutes per frame, is the result of thorough analysis and process optimization using multiple iterations of 3D printed plastic prototypes.

Fully Automated Surface Finishing, Real-time Quality Control

Finally, the assembled bike frame undergoes fully automatic surface post-processing, followed by a simple quality control. Because the adhesive device and structural design are carried out according to Poka-Yoke principles, human errors are completely eliminated from the bonding process. Together, Möve Mobility engineers, Sika’s structural bonding specialists, and frame testers at the Zedler Institut have ensured the frame can be quality controlled according to all relevant standards in real time.

Circular Design for Easy Repair and Recycling 

In total, just 80 grams of structural adhesive are needed to bond the entire 1.167 kilo frame. If the frame is damaged, the adhesive points can be treated with selective inductive heating up to 300 degrees for disassembly and repair. And when the frame reaches its end of life, the same process can be used to remove and recycle up to 98% of all pure titanium components.

Compared with aluminum and carbon frame constructions, the VER-TEC process technology overcomes many of the barriers to profitable e-bike production. In addition to  enabling near-shoring of production, 3D printing offers the freedom to optimize and evolve designs without the costly re-tooling associated with carbon constructions.

“We’re already planning for production of the first 3,000 frames and expect the Avian to retail for under 6,000 EUR, which is remarkable for a bike of this quality and weight class,” says Tobias Spröte, CEO of Möve Mobility. “But the advantages go beyond cost efficiency. As a designer, it’s amazing to have the freedom that 3D printing gives you. We can quickly adapt the designs. We can work on new e-MTB models. And the same concept can be adapted to cheaper materials, since you can bond with plastics, composites and different metals. And even better, we can do all of this together with Sika right here in Germany — without any offshoring of production.”

Move Forward with Adhesive Bonding

What can adhesive bonding do for your business? Because every customer challenge is unique, Sika is heavily invested in the local presence of application engineers and design engineers in more than 100 countries to support the entire customer journey from the initial design phase to final industrialization. Starting with a cost assessment of your designs and processes, we apply a fully data-driven approach to the transition to adhesive bonding. From identifying design issues to expert lab testing, technical process support, implementation, validation and training, we’re with you every step of the way. Together, we can develop the right opportunities to move your business forward.

 Discover How Sika’s Adhesive Bonding Solutions Can Move Your Business Forward