The Santacruz Syndicate Are Using Carbon Nanotube Reinforced Rims
Since 2018, the Santa Cruz Syndicate have been racing and developing prototype versions of Santa Cruz Reserve rims that use carbon nanotubes to increase strength. The technology is called NAWAStitch and it's essentially a layer of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes in-between the layers of carbon fiber and at right angles to them. The idea is to "stitch" the carbon fiber layers together to prevent them shearing apart, or cracks developing in the rim. NAWA refer to this layer as "nano-Velcro".
The nanotube layer holds together the perpendicular layers of carbon fiber to stop them shearing apart during an impact.
NAWA is a company headquartered in France with a second location in Dayton, Ohio. They use vertically aligned carbon nanotubes for ultra-capacitors, battery electrodes and carbon composites, like these rims. They claim that in their own tests, "NAWAStitch-reinforced carbon fiber composites have shear strength increased by a factor of 100 and shock resistance by a factor of 10." Apparently, this results in a rim that is "not only more resistant to strike damage... but has far greater shear strength too. NAWAStitch has the potential to dramatically reduce the number of wheel failures experienced by the team over a competitive season by 80%."
The Syndicate have been racing on the NAWAStitch-reinforced rims since 2018.
According to Nic McCrae, Senior composites engineer at Santa Cruz, "NAWAStitch has made the wheels much stronger, we believe by increasing the buckling resistance of the inner surface of the rims during high compressions [from an impact]... We’ve had far fewer wheel failures as a result. What’s more, NAWAStitch does not affect the way wheels respond to the riders’ inputs... our Reserve wheels are without doubt the strongest rims on the circuit."
The rims have been in development with the Santacruz Syndicate since 2017 and raced on since 2018. NAWA becomes an official "key partner" of the team in 2021.
The rims are competition-only for now, but the aim is to use NAWAStitch in mass-production Reserve wheels in the future.
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The boss’s father in law died from asbestosis, so we’re pretty fanatical about OHS here. I am a systems engineer and even though we don’t do much soldering on-site, we have a really elaborate ventilation system to prevent any lead or flux fumes from getting into our bodies or the environment. Same goes for the paint shop.
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We called them... "Bourbon Cantaloupes". Why I don't know, that was before my time.
things wheels do: get smashed into hard, sharp things.