TSDESIGN

TSDESIGN is a Tokyo-based firm that designs industrial products, advertising materials, and outdoor goods, including bicycles. For each product they design, they iterate many times. Before adopting Markforged, TSDESIGN owned three fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printers — machines capable of printing looks-like prototypes. However, the plastic parts yielded by these machines were not strong or robust enough to be functional prototypes. When they needed a functional prototype they would send it out to a third-party CNC vendor to get it machined out of aluminum — a process which was both slow and cost-intensive.

This unusual design allows a rider to customize bottom bracket height — the distance between their pedals and the ground. It was designed with the aid of functional prototypes printed with Markforged technology. Carbon fiber-reinforced Onyx delivered functionally identical test results to the machined aluminum that would typically be used for parts like this, at a substantially lower cost and faster turnaround time.