Materialise 3D Prints Unique Trophy for Tour of Britain Road Cycling Event

Anyone who has played intramural sports in their younger days knows that triumphant feeling of receiving a trophy; whether it be for a championship or just participating, the victorious feeling remained the same. Now, with 3D printing technology, these trophies can be created with customization in mind, creating a more personal and significant award for competitors across the entire spectrum of competition.

There are a number of recent examples that show how 3D printing technology is becoming a go-to technique for trophy production. At Ohio’s Kent State University, the football team’s MVP will be awarded with a bronze 3D printed version of the famed Lt. Jack Rittichier Trophy. Earlier this year, 3Diligent sponsored a contest that called on students to design a trophy for the Kansas City Royals baseball team, the winners of the 2015 World Series. Now, the world’s largest online bike store, Chain Reaction Cycles, has revealed that they’ve utilized 3D printing technology to create the prestigious 3D-Printed Chain Reaction Cycles trophy for this year’s Tour of Britain road cycling event.

The cycling event, which took place September 4-11, consisted of eight stages that stretched across over 1,000 miles of the UK, making it the premier road cycling event for the entire region. As a title sponsor of the Tour of Britain, the online bike store decided to present the winner of each stage with a Chain Reaction Cycles Points Jersey and the 3D-Printed Chain Reaction Cycles trophy. These prizes were awarded to the most consistent finisher with the most accumulated points at the end of each round.

The 3D printed trophy was designed by Alan Boyd, a Design Engineer for Vitus Bikes at Chain Reaction Cycles. The one-of-a-kind trophy is based off the company’s flagship bicycle model, the Vitus Vitesse Evo, which was the bike being used by Anpost Chain Reaction Sean Kelly team during the Tour of Britain event. In order to recreate this bicycle model into a 3D printed trophy, the Chain Reaction Cycles team turned to 3D printing service bureau Materialise, using their OnSite online ordering platform to help produce the eight trophies.

“I wanted to design something that was unique, that hadn’t been done before,” said Boyd. “I’ve had experience of 3D printing for other projects and given the nature of the design this was the only way to produce the trophy – it’s detailed and intricate and you couldn’t cast it unless it was done in two pieces. It needed to go straight to additive manufacturing because of the benefits of the technology.”

To create a true 3D printed representation of the Vitus Vitesse Evo bike, Materialise utilized their Laser Sintering technology, and then sent it back to Chain Reaction Cycles for an in-house finish. By working with Materialise, Boyd was able to overcome his tight time constraints and receive the 3D printed trophy in just over a week. With their reasonable prices and quick turnaround, Materialise was able to 3D print and ship these unique trophies in a timely manner, getting them to Chain Reaction Cycles quickly so that they could award the event’s most victorious cyclists. Discuss further in the 3D Printed Trophy forum over at 3DPB.com.