Instead of wheeling off on their biodegradable plastic bike, two Carleton students’ ambitious project snapped in half, startling the small crowd of students at a press conference Feb. 9.
If all had gone correctly, the demonstration would have showcased student Gabriel Wong successfully operating a fully plastic bike after a year of testing.
Despite the failed attempt, the project’s designers, James Nugent and Michael Mackay-McLaren, were all smiles as they explained to the crowd what went wrong.
“The part in the middle that snapped was printed hollow instead of solid,” Mackay-McLaren explained to the crowd. “Having a hollow piece makes it easier for it to break under any force.”
This public test of their bike was not the first for the innovators. During a PowerPoint presentation, the students elaborated on the numerous tests the bike had undergone in the past year.
In the past, they have had success.
“The bike was able to fully stand up last time,” Nugent laughed during the presentation. “Other than that one part, it’s fully functional.”
While there were some successes, the students mentioned possible problems with the plastic model.
“There’s a lot of possibility for warping, or the over-bending of plastic,” Nugent said.
Nugent and Mackay-McLaren used the 3D Makebot printers offered at Carleton to construct the different parts of the bike.
Ashley Fleischer, the administrator of Carleton’s Discovery Centre, said Nugent and Mackay-McLaren’s project is not the first the Discovery Centre has helped.
“The boys came to us with their crazy bike idea and we approved their use of the plastic printer,” she said. “We get everyone in here—from people off the street to architects and engineers using the printers for their projects.”
The Discovery Centre sports two Makebot printers and a 3D-scanner, which can be used to make replicas of small objects, like some of the nuts and bolts used by Nugent and Mackay-McLaren.
At the end of the day, it comes down to a love of bikes, the students said.
“Bikes are cool,” Mackay-McLaren said about his inspiration for the project. “I wanted to work with the 3D printers, so I had to find something to print.”
Here’s a video that Charlatan reporter Anna Desmarais managed to snap of the bike breaking.
