Case-Study: Aftermarket Motorcycle Parts Using 3D Scanning

The aftermarket industry is rapidly growing thanks to new tools to help with CAD design. 3D printing, 3D Scanning and CAD software can make designing and prototyping parts quick, making items take only hours to make instead of days. Now, making custom aftermarket parts or improved designs to existing items is much more accessible for all sizes of business. If you're looking to modify parts, or design new ones around existing geometry, having a 3D scan should be the first step to ensure accuracy in designs. EDR Performance - a motorcycle repair and racing outfitting service shop is taking advantage of this new modern workflow. We've assist them with digitizing parts to assist with designing new velocity stacks, intake covers, and other accessories. Using high-end 3D printers, EDR Performance is able to take these new designs and create aftermarket parts overnight. Functional for racing and high-quality to help ensure top performance on the bikes they work with.

In this blog we want to show the workflow from taking parts and creating some aftermarket designs off them. Highlighting how 3D scans and CAD services provided by Arkify3D can help in product development! Starting with a scan OEM parts (original manufactured items - also known as stock parts) often are unique to each year's model and vehicle. Accounting for all the small changes can be difficult - so making a 3D scan of the part allows you to easily create CAD features on key parts. Mounting holes, intake circles, and heights of parts can all be identified in just two scans.

A processed mesh next to a 3D scan of a stock part.

Now, instead of measuring all those individual curves there is a 3D reference that can be measured from.

A dimension measurement made from the mesh file.

Modeling Off 3D Scans

The 3D mesh made from the scan is exportable as a .stl mesh which can be imported into a variety of CAD software. This will be a reference to extract sketch features from and check against.

A newly designed CAD model (light gray) overlapping the reference mesh (dark gray).

Typically, there are a few key features that need to always match the original part. This way everything fits together neatly during installation and the original fixtures don't need to be changed. For motorcycle velocity stacks like above - this typically means fitting to mounting holes and air box walls. Each part is unique however, so it's important to know your design constraints before making major changes. Utilizing CAD the fullest Once a new design is made it can be 3D printed for prototyping. This gives you instant feedback on changes that can be made or what may need to be adjusted for a better fit. For aftermarket parts, this may mean slightly increasing diameters for holes to work better or snaps into place easier.

A stock part (left) next to a printed prototype (right). This is used to check hole locations and fitting inside the airbox walls.

Having a CAD file allows for creative design and adding custom features. It's easy to adjust things like feature heights or angles to see how it affects functionality. Or, you can make completely new designs better suited for your market - such removing features off an intake cover to improve airflow.

A large section is removed from this intake covers CAD model so a new plate can be placed over it better suited for racing.

And when your design is complete - a logo can be embossed!

Two 3D printed accessories with the companies logo embossed on it.

___ By utilizing 3D scanning and 3Dprinters getting custom parts to your customers has never been easier. EDR Performance has been utilizing 3D scanning resources for several parts to make design optimizes for racing or improved performance on their bikes. Vastly cutting back on engineering time and bringing test prototypes to life quickly. Other customers of ours have used this workflow to make functional replacement parts and fixtures for items inside cars, work spaces, or machine shops. If you have any questions or would like to begin a scanning project with us please reach out via arkify3d@gmail.com or using the Contact form on our website!