What is Multi Jet Fusion?

Aerohead is unique in the bicycle accessory market in that all our products share one manufacturing technology: Multi Jet Fusion.

Multi Jet Fusion is an HP technology that is a variant of the more general powder bed fusion manufacturing technique. We have tried other similar manufacturing processes, but Multi Jet Fusion is currently the only technology that delivers upon our strict requirements for quality.

Multi Jet Fusion technology emerged in the late 2010s and has evolved rapidly in the last few years, with big strides taken in accuracy, repeatability, density, surface finish and tensile strength.

It was with the introduction of the 5000-series of HP Multi Jet Fusion machines (released in 2018, with widespread availability a few years later in around 2022) that part quality was finally reliably production-quality. It is on these machines that Aerohead depends.

How It Works

Multi Jet Fusion works by incrementally adding imperceptibly thin layers of powdered polymer (Nylon-12) material to a heated print bed. Ink jet printing technology is used to precisely describe the shape of each layer; infrared radiation is then used to selectively melt or fuse the topmost layer of the part under construction. This approach gives us complete freedom of geometry when designing components.

Benefits of Multi Jet Fusion

The importance of this freedom cannot be overstated: traditional manufacturing techniques impose strict limitations on geometry (ie. shape) and this bleeds into the functional characteristics of the end product, typically worsening the strength-to-weight ratio and/or increasing the unit cost.

For example, the CNC-machined aluminium K-Edge Wahoo Max Combo Mount (RRP £74.99) weighs over 100% more than the equivalent Aerohead part (the Aerohead Computer Mount Combo, RRP £59.99) with only a marginal increase in maximum payload. This unbelievable difference in strength-to-weight ratio is made possible by a geometry in the Aerohead part that is impossible to achieve with older techniques such CNC machining.

And there are other benefits too:

  • Multi Jet Fusion enables us to engineer the combo connector with greater precision so your GoPro-compatible accessories are held more firmly and more reliably than on the K-Edge part, and
  • the like-for-like part count in the K-Edge product is more than 100% greater than the equivalent Aerohead product, simplifying production, reducing weight and ultimately reducing cost, and
  • the precise accuracy of Multi Jet Fusion allows for products consisting of multiple sub-components - such as elastomer anti-vibration inserts - with a complete absence of bonding, reducing weight, simplifying assembly, and improving repairability, and
  • the cycle time for part design improvement is measured in days instead of months, meaning Aerohead bicycle accessories have been through many more design iterations than their competitors, delivering you a better product, and
  • not only are Aerohead products designed and assembled in England, they are manufactured in England too.