Primal Speedbike Fairing Construction Using Precision Board

Coastal Enterprises, manufacturers of Precision Board HDU, is proud to host guest blogs written by some of the industry’s biggest movers and shakers, posted to the Precision Board Blog. This guest blog is written by George Leone, a long-time member of the Human Powered Vehicle (HPV) racing scene, and Team Captain for Team Primal. In this guest blog (part 1 of 3), George elaborates on the team’s progress towards fabricating Primal 3 using Precision Board and competing at the Human Powered Vehicle Speed Challenge near Battle Mountain, Nevada in September 2021 (this year’s event was cancelled).

Tom Robinson who helped me drive the truck and trailer, Matt Beccue does CNC work for Safran Aerospace & coordinated the project there, and Judy Lantaca, one of my favorite former Student Technicians at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

In George Leone’s own words…

After almost 5 years of chassis design and construction, precise aerodynamic design and computer simulation, we are poised to create the fairing for Primal 3, a streamlined, enclosed bicycle using 15 lb./cu./ft. Precision Board in the manufacturing process. This muscle-powered vehicle is designed for extreme speeds, far faster than you can legally drive on the freeway. A previous blog years ago featured Primal 2 which exceeded 70 mph three times using muscle power alone, on the flat road at the World Human Powered Speed Challenge held annually near Battle Mountain, Nevada.

We chose Precision Board not only for it’s great workability and consistency, but also for it’s high recyclables content. Our speedbike (also known as a Human-Powered Vehicle or HPV) is not only raced for records, but acts as a demonstration of what the future of transportation holds for us. Lightweight, extremely aerodynamic, structurally safe vehicles that use a minimum of effort to achieve energy efficiency. The recyclables content of the Precision Board used in its manufacture fits our futuristic agenda perfectly.

Pickup and transport to Safran Aerospace for CNC work.

We picked up two custom bonded blocks of foam for the right and left sides of the fairing in early March 2020. It was great seeing the clean, state of the art manufacturing facility that Coastal Enterprises runs. I used to run the Student Projects Shop at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and always look at shops with a critical eye for cleanliness and safety.

The custom bonded blocks the we received had bond lines that were flawless, and the PB Bond 240 used as an adhesive that guaranteed there would be no “chunking out” of a hard adhesive, damaging the foam during the machining process. I’ve bonded a lot of foam in the last 40+ years and I was very impressed with the quality of the bond lines. From now on, I will definitely have Coastal Enterprises make custom bonded blocks for me. Not only does this save “gluing” time, it also saves re-work time to repair chunks of hard adhesive torn out by the CNC router or by the hand tools that I use.

My neighbor Jim McEntire, who restores tractors and vintage Ford cars, graciously loaned his pickup truck and a heavy duty trailer to bring the foam blocks to Safran Aerospace in Santa Maria, CA and from there home to my barn 4 hours North of Los Angeles, near Atascadero, CA.

We left Orange, California, the home of Coastal Enterprises, at almost rush hour and had to drive through Los Angeles. Somewhere in traffic in LA, I received a text from my friend and Cal Poly SLO Shop Manager, Eric Pulse, who I worked with for years. “So I see you’ve got the foam and are driving it North” !!! I replied “What the heck, how could you know this?” (I had not mentioned to anyone that I was getting the foam at that time.) Eric came back “Oh, a former student saw a truck towing a trailer with foam on it, and figured it was you. He thinks he saw you as a passenger.” (My old friend Tom Robinson was driving at the time). I swear, I could never rob a bank, someone would recognize me right away!

We delivered the Precision Board HDU three hours later to Safran Aerospace in Santa Maria, CA, as they had generously offered to CNC machine the aerodynamic body shape into the foam. Matt Beccue, the CNC supervisor, met us and we offloaded the foam and then drove the truck and empty trailer home.

The blue “Dychem” lines on the foam were done to verify the location of the surface as the project progressed.

Stay tuned for Part 2 and Part 3!

George Leone has a long history with Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and is a fount of knowledge when it comes to both composites and Human Powered Vehicle Racing. He volunteered sporadically helping Cal Poly’s HPV teams from 1980 to 1989, and then continuously from 1989 to the present. George also ran the Cal Poly Projects Shop from 2001 to 2017. This shop includes facilities for machining, student welding, woodworking, sheet metal work, advanced composites and design space for senior projects, as well as nine engineering clubs that compete at a national level. He has also built and raced his own HPVs since 1988.

ABOUT TEAM PRIMAL

Team Primal consists of a group of friends, current Cal Poly Professors and former students. It is privately funded and is not sponsored by Cal Poly in any way.

ABOUT COASTAL ENTERPRISES

At Coastal Enterprises, we like to look at the composites industry as a fully collaborative effort. Every fresh new development by an individual is really a contribution to a collective knowledge base. Like any scientific pursuit, the most potent advancements are made when information is shared freely between likeminded groups of people. For this reason, we feel obliged to do everything we can to enlighten and empower the future community of composites professionals. That’s why we support school programs with donations of Precision Board HDU. Click HERE to find out more about the program or give us a call with your questions at 800-845-0745.

Precision Board Now Shipping in 1-2 Days!

To understand how we can ship this fast, check out the one minute video below.

Coastal Enterprises is fully stocked with Precision Board HDU and even better, our turnaround time is 1-2 working days for most orders.

At our manufacturing facility in Orange, California, blocks are organized by density and size for easy cutting and shipping.

We have all 16 densities of Precision Board in stock with shipping times of 1-2 days. Give us a call at 800-845-0745 or email us at hdu@precisionboard.com to place your Precision Board HDU order today.

Coastal Enterprises is a 30 year old, privately-owned company, located in California. Our manufacturing products and processes are fully integrated in the United States, which has allowed us to avoid supply chain disruptions and maintain unparalleled market stability. For thirty years we have manufactured Precision Board, a high-density urethane tooling board used in many different applications including: composite layup tooling, prototyping, thermoform tooling, pattern making, theming parks, dimensional signage and more. It is currently being used in many essential industries including aerospace, defense, transportation, energy and healthcare. Contact us for pricing, free samples, or to sign up for newsletters.

How many parts can be pulled from a Precision Board mold?

When discussing the use of Precision Board as a tooling substrate for thermoforming molds, customers often ask “How many parts can I pull off a Precision Board tool?” That’s an important and straight forward question but the answer can be complex which we will help with in the blog below. We’ll also give a current example of how Precision Board was used by a company to pivot from their usual theme park work into a completely new application- making face shields from readily available PBHT-48 Precision Board. In the process, they were able to keep their business open during the Coronavirus Pandemic and pull hundreds of parts from Precision Board molds for PPE.

The number of parts that can be produced using a Precision Board mold is heavily dependent on a number of factors, namely;

Process Temperature
Cycle Times
Material Being Formed
Tool Use
Tool Geometry
The Precision Board Density Being Used

Depending on the part being produced and the density selected, Precision Board can be used to produce short runs of a few parts or thousands of parts in a production setting. That’s one of the best features of the Precision Board line. With 16 different density offerings, all available in high-temp PBHT and low-temp PBLT options, we have a Precision Board option that can fit just about any project’s requirements.

There are many ways to approach your project. You might decide using a lower density Precision Board option coated with a more robust surface coat best fits your needs or perhaps a higher density Precision Board tool that does not need to be coated at all best suits your budget and physical requirement. Either way, when it comes to selecting the right Precision Board option for your specific job, contact our technical sales team to make sure you get a tool that will successfully pull the number of parts you are looking for.

To help explain in greater detail, we’re going to share a more specific example of a company currently making multiple parts from Precision Board.

This face shield mold was made out of Precision Board PBHT-48. In this application, Monster City Studios (Fresno, CA), who normally produces environments for amusement parks and props for trade shows, shifted their business to producing face shields at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. They needed to produce these tools quickly and start making parts right away. They knew Coastal Enterprises could help.

The PBHT-48 material was on their floor within 2 days from placing an order. Since Precision Board can be cut at accelerated feed rates as compared to alternative tooling substrates, the tools were able to be machined quickly and Monster City Studios were pulling their first parts within a week from placing their order. These tools were sanded with 1000 grit and they were able to get over 300 pulls from the part with nearly no degradation and with no maintenance. After a quick resurfacing, these parts went back into production and they were able to pull 1500 parts on this particular mold before swapping out to another PBHT-48 mold. You can also read the story about Coastal Enterprises and Monster City Studios on the COVID-19 Industry Updates page on the Composites World website from May 7th.

Give us a call at 800-845-0745 or send us an email at hdu@precisionboard.com. We have PBHT-48 in stock as well as all 16 densities of Precision Board with shipping times of 1-2 days. Let us help you get back on track with readily available Precision Board HDU.

Coastal Enterprises is a privately-owned company, located in California. Our manufacturing processes are fully integrated in the United States, which has allowed us to avoid supply chain disruptions and maintain unparalleled market stability. We manufacture Precision Board, a high-density urethane tooling board used in many different applications including composite tooling, prototyping, thermoform tooling, pattern making, theming, dimensional signage and more. It is currently being used in many essential industries including aerospace, defense, transportation, energy and healthcare. You can get pricing, free samples, sign up for newsletters or contact us.

Pause, Pivot, Positive: No Supply Chain Disruptions for Precision Board

Pause. Pivot. Positive. It is a conflict management system devised by Kerry Wekelo, but it can easily be applied to how businesses are responding to the Coronavirus Pandemic. Here at Coastal Enterprises we are focusing on tangible actions we can take to support you during these challenging times. We will be sharing frequent blogs with different ways you can pause and pivot to the positive with Precision Board.

This week’s ‘Pause, Pivot, Positive’ blog focuses on how Coastal Enterprises being a fully United States integrated company means no supply chain disruptions and readily available Precision Board to keep your projects on track and on time.

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board and is a privately-owned company, located in California. Our manufacturing processes are fully integrated in the United States which has allowed us to avoid supply chain disruptions and maintain unparalleled market stability. While other materials become harder to keep in stock, Precision Board remains readily available and shipping in a matter of days, not weeks.

Precision Board is a high-density urethane tooling board used in a number of different applications including composite tooling, prototyping, thermoform tooling, pattern making, theming, architectural, dimensional signage and more. It is currently being used in many essential industries including aerospace, defense, transportation, energy and healthcare.

With the fastest turnaround times in the industry, more density options than any other competitor and customizable solutions available; these essential industries are more eager than ever to learn about the benefits of Precision Board tooling board.

To find out more about how we can help your business in these unusual times, shoot us an email at hdu@precisionboard.com or give us a call at (800) 845-0745.

You might be surprised at what you can accomplish with a little help from your friends at Coastal.

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board, a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly urethane material used extensively in the tooling industry. It is a closed-cell, rigid, dimensionally-stable substrate that is ideal for use in a number of different tooling applications.

Request free samples, get a quote or sign up for weekly e-blasts packed with helpful information.

Sawatzky Guest Blog: A Precision Board Sample for the Ages

Coastal Enterprises, manufacturers of Precision Board HDU, is proud to announce a series of guest blogs written by Dan Sawatzky of Imagination Corporation, which will be posted on the Precision Board Blog each month. This month Dan Sawatzky talks about a sample sign he made from 30lb Precision Board nearly ten years ago that has endured road trips to trade shows and lived in different spots in his studio/showroom. It just goes to show the staying power of signs made from Precision Board high-density urethane (and the limited upkeep on them too!).

In Dan’s own words…

We built this sign back in the fall of 2010 – almost ten long years ago! It was a sample piece I created during our slow time in the financial recession. The sign was honoured with national and international awards and was featured in the trade magazines too. Best of all this sample sign brought us tens of thousands of dollars of paying work.

It weathered a lot of miles in the first couple of years. It travelled to a number of trade shows. It lived in my design studio when it wasn’t on the road. About five years ago we cut off the heavy duty floor stand and instead fashioned a new wall mount. It’s been moved from time to time when we rearrange the shop but it has lived on the upper wall of our workshop since then. Two or three times each year when we do a deep clean this sign gets the dust blown off along with the other 150 samples that live there.

The sign is made using PBLT-30 Precision Board HDU and still looks as good as the day it was finished.

Ed note: You can read all about how Dan put this project together back in 2011 with our throwback blog HERE. He ended up winning first place in Sign Media Canada’s Stand Alone Sign category for this sign. Here’s a photo from when he created it almost ten years ago. Hard to tell the difference between then and now!

Sawatzky’s Imagination Corporation is a small family company that specializes in the design and creation of dimensional signs and environments. They tackle projects of any size from small signs to entire theme parks. Their work has garnered numerous national and international awards.

Dan Sawatzky is best described as a creative force and visual storyteller extraordinaire. His art career spans almost fifty years of magic. Dan’s passion is to design and create imaginative places that take people from the normal world to a setting of delight and wonder.

Coastal Enterprises manufactures Precision Board HDU, a versatile, cost-effective and eco-friendly urethane sign material that is particularly effective for making professional-looking indoor and outdoor dimensional signs. It is a closed-cell rigid substrate that does not rot, warp or crack. You can request free samples, get a quote or sign up for periodic newsletters packed with helpful information.