A foldable load carrier for the fleet
A load carrier for the Urban Arrow Cargo Large in the Ride Today fleet. The original flight case was built from aluminium extrusions and plastic honeycomb panels: the extrusions bent, and on impact the panels broke and came loose. This design does away with the extrusions: a body of foamed polypropylene sheet folds into its own edges and is fixed to aluminium composite side panels with plastic snap rivets. The result is sturdier, easier to assemble, uses less material in total and folds flat for storage. It is in use; the lid is in production.
Storage space is a cost
A fleet keeps spare carriers, and a rigid box takes up the same room on a shelf as it does on the bike. This carrier folds flat, so spares and returns take a fraction of the space.
Sturdier without extrusions
In the original flight case, the panels sat in aluminium extrusions. The extrusions were prone to bending, and on impact the panels broke and came loose from them. Here the foamed PP body folds into its own edges and is fixed to aluminium composite side panels with plastic snap rivets, so there is no extrusion to bend and no edge for a panel to come loose from. The box is sturdier and quicker to assemble, and uses less material overall. The flat composite sides double as the surface for decals. The snap rivets come out again: the box breaks down so worn parts can be replaced when it is refurbished, and at the end of its life the materials can be separated for recycling. The design is modular, so it can be adapted to different uses instead of designing a new box each time.
Before anything was cut, I placed the CAD model full-size in the street with augmented reality, to check proportions and how the box sits on the bike in a real environment.
The colours in the render are a design study; the production carrier is black, with coloured corner pieces.
The hinge is part of the lid itself: a living hinge in the foamed PP, good for 40,000 bends. After the separate, custom hinge on the DOCKR Box, this time there is no hinge to buy, fit or service at all.
That makes the lid cheaper to produce, and with no gaps or fixings around the hinge, water stays out and there is nothing to maintain.
