When we received the request from Bern Ivanov, we were inspired by his wacky idea. The bicycle frame was to be CNC-milled in one piece from a 7075 aluminium block – an extremely robust, high-quality material that is primarily used in the aerospace industry. “It was immediately clear to us that we were going to take on this challenge and make this vision a reality together,” recalls Markus Brunner, application engineer at CERATIZIT.

Bernd Ivanov had intentionally sought out the specialists at CERATIZIT for his project, as he was looking for a partner he could rely on that offered a complete machining solution from a single source, i.e. the right tool and the required know-how. Up until now, his company was involved in single part production for the automotive industry. He has put his trust in tools from CERATIZIT for many years, as well as in the expertise of our application engineers.

From a technical point of view, the machining of small pockets on the bike frame was not a problem, but the milling process took far too long with the previously used standard milling cutter. This was a time-consuming and expensive factor that needed to be optimised urgently in order make things cost-efficient. Our technical advisors knew how to do this and brought the CIRCULARLINE CCR END MILL on board with its intelligent milling strategy, which was used in combination with the trochoidal machining process. The performance was impressive, but the strong radial forces also place higher demands on the tool. For this reason, our high-performance tools are predominantly coated with DRAGONSKIN, an extremely wear-resistant coating technology that can also withstand high temperatures. Overall, we were able to reduce the machining time significantly and extend the tool lives at the same time. After all, efficiency is a crucial factor in a company’s success, and that is JUST OUR THING.

The FRACE Bike F 160 came into being as a result of what was presumed to be a wild idea: a top-class mountain bike that can withstand the highest stresses in the Enduro, Downhill and Alpine Snow fields and is unique in terms of design.