D'Aluisio Smartweld
Making Aluminum Awesome
Aluminum is a great material for making bike frames; it’s light, it’s stiff, and it doesn’t cost a bajillion dollars. But there are some material properties that need to be taken into account when welding it together into a bicycle. This is where D’Aluisio Smartweld technology comes into play, and brings out the very best that aluminum has to offer.
What is Smartweld?
Smartweld is an engineering process that procisely mathces the welded area of tube-to-tube joints, in turn allowing a better welded joint, much stronger weld areas, and ultimately a stronger, lighter frame. In the case of the new Specialized Chisel we're tlaking specificailly about the head tube, top tube and down tub joined togehter. This is the highest stress area in a bicycle frame, and Smartweld is how Specialized can achieve dramatically increased frame strength at close to carbon fiber weights.
Yeah, But What IS Smartweld?
Okay, Smartweld is where Specialized engineer the shape of the head tube to precisely match the shape of the top and down tubes where they intersect. Specialized also engineers the shape of the top and down tubes where they meet the head tube. We design these tubes to intersect exactly how we need them without any old-fashioned mitering or fudging, and we add material right at the ends of the tubes where they are welded together. The benefits of this are huge.
Who is D’Aluisio?
Chris D’Aluisio is the engineering brain behind Smartweld. Initially, he was looking for a cosmetic solution – developing a process that would allow for very smooth, unobtrusive, seamless looking weld zones. Thing is, when he put these new frames on the test jig, they completely obliterated their existing reference points. Chris called Chuck Texeira (the legitimate godfather of modern aluminum as it pertains to bicycles) in to find out why and how this was happening, and according to Chuck, “we thought this was a good approach, but when we started testing them we found that these frames were lasting two to three times longer in cycles to failure and durability testing.” Smartweld, it turns out, was shaping up to be a whole lot more than just a pretty face.
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The Hydroforming Advantage
Hydroforming, a technique that utilizes hydraulic pressure to mold aluminum tubing, plays a crucial role alongside Smartweld in maximizing aluminum’s performance. This process enables the creation of complex shapes that enhance directional stiffness where necessary, reinforce high-stress areas with additional material, and reduce excess where it's not needed. Additionally, hydroforming allows for the precise formation of jigsaw-like tube junctions, achieving a level of accuracy unattainable through other metal-forming methods.
No More Weld Flex
This engineered tube junction eliminates weld flex, which is one of the primary ways that aluminum welds can fail. By engineering this junction so precisely, we can place the weld zone where we want it, and move it away from stress points. This gives us more versatility in how we design and utilize our tubing, allowing us to ensure optimum weld strength while also employing lighter overall tubing.
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No More Weld Flex
The engineered Smartweld joints make welders very happy. The tight angles and crowded real estate around a bicycle head tube are challenging for the best welders to cleanly and consistently lay down their beads. Often the welders are “welding in space” as they pull tubes together with their weld beads, resulting in joints that are already pre-stressed. Smartweld eliminates that completely by offering perfectly aligned, easily accessible surfaces at the tube junctions.
Focused Materials
By focusing on the material needs in the highly stressed weld zones, and putting the necessary material exactly where it needs to be, we also have the freedom to use tubing that delivers the ride characteristics we want, instead of having to make do with overbuilt tubing that sacrifices ride quality in order to be strong enough to survive the trauma of old-school welding.
Stonger, Lighter, More Precise
The bottom line: D'Aluisio Smartweld enables Specialized to maximize the potential of alumium, bringing you an afordable high-performance frame that is stronger, lighter, more compliant and better handling than anything that came before.