Design Engineering
Showcase 2023

Brompton Bike

Tags
User Research
Mechanical Design
Rapid Prototyping

Project Details

Student
Harris Mier
Team
Design - Future Brompton
Role
Design Engineer
Sector
Aerospace & Mobility
Links
LinkedIn

Brompton Bicycle is a renowned British manufacturer of folding bicycles. Over years of development, Brompton have built a reputation for quality with an unrivalled folding mechanism and as such, Brompton are the largest volume bicycle manufacturer in Britain. The company’s mission statement is ‘We Create Urban Freedom for Happier Lives’. While the bike is not going to compete with leading road bike manufacturers in ride performance, their lightweight product, that is acclaimed for its portability, creates freedom in often restrictive urban environments.

Harris Mier

Role and Contributions

My role was of a Design Engineer within a team dedicated to the development of a future bike. In particular, my focus was primarily on the design of an integrated bike security system and a novel hinge mechanism.

I used a double diamond approach to structure the assigned projects. My work included exploratory research into bike theft and what bike security means specifically to a user of a Brompton bike, combing interview data and global survey insights to drive the generation of concepts before down selecting them against specified assessment criteria. I frequently used rapid prototyping in the form of 3D printing and laser cutting to facilitate evaluative user research and communication to the wider team.

Upon the selection of concepts, I completed detailed design while optimising mechanical systems with complex Solidworks CAD assemblies, before running a search to assess the feasibility for patents.

My key achievements can be summarised as, firstly, delivering valuable insight from research into an area that was previously not well understood by the company. Secondly, product level requirements associated with my concept were approved to be signed off by high level management, this should result further detailed development as part of the future bike.

Harris Mier