E-Bike

Friday afternoon, 4 pm:
The mountain bike group of EMUGE-FRANKEN makes final preparations for today's ride.
A topic of conversation during tour planning is e-bikes: „In the past, you could pedal as much as you wanted - if the hill was too steep, you had to get off and push. Today there are e-bikes and the ride always goes full steam ahead!“. We don't know yet what our colleague Matthias thinks about e-bikes.

The fact is: Electrically assisted bicycles are widely available and have been accepted by the masses.

But wait: Are all e-bikes the same or are there any differences?

We asked our fellow sportsman: "Of course, with the so-called "pedelec" the electric motor only supports when the rider pedals himself! An e-bike, on the other hand, also rides without pedal assistance and is therefore subject to registration. Strictly speaking, there are millions of "pedelecs" on German roads and streets. In addition, he also mentions an advantage of motor assistance: „Clearly the long riding range!“. We ask him if he has an e-bike.

He points to his mountain bike without a motor: „Of course not, I'm too young for that!“

Our colleague gets on the bicycle saddle, he says goodby in his hearty and strongly Franconian accent and then disappears in the direction of Lauf's local mountain, the Moritzberg. As he is leaving, we learn that he is working on a clamping device for an e-bike drive. We'll look into it!

There is not much room for the electric motor and battery in a bicycle - for optical reasons alone. The weight of the drive components also plays a decisive role. The most striking core piece here is the drive shaft, which bundles the power of the engine and driver and „puts it on the chain", so to speak.

EMUGE-FRANKEN offers clamping tools for exact clamping of the drive shaft for the "E-bikes and pedelecs" sector.

Our colleague Tobias describes the challenges that had to be solved: „The frame for the clamping concept is provided by extremely thin-walled material, a complex geometry and high manufacturing tolerances“.

An FEM calculation should help: „The "finite element method" is an established tool for strength and deformation investigation and simulates the possible stress forces and their effect on a component“.

Harald explains the finished clamping concept on the basis of the workpiece and an animated 3D design : „The clamping tool has three clamping jaws. They grip the workpiece at three defined points. We handle the complex geometry by means of a two-stage approach of the clamping jaws The entire process happens with little deformation, but still offers a holding torque of 5 Nm during grinding!“.

In addition, the customer saves a second clamping of the workpiece.

The e-bike has made the transition from trend product to lifestyle bike, also among our colleagues. Today, e-bikes or pedelecs are used in urban areas as well as on alpine crossings or in bike parks. Modern, full-suspension sports models are ideal for offroad riding, comfortable bikes with additional drive offer new perspectives for everyday use.

We ask our motorised colleague Harald for the secret recipe: „I decide how far I want to ride, regardless of wind and weather, based on the adjustable assistance levels. Especially at the beginning of my "pedelec career", it was great to ride tours that had previously only been reserved for my colleagues with more stamina.!“  

The precise, high-precision production of drive parts is only possible if the clamping concept is right. The clamping technology of EMUGE-FRANKEN has the diverse know-how and is a powerful partner to master such challenges.

Ask our contact persons!