How Renishaw Engineered Success for Team GB’s Cycling Team

Team GB’s amazing cycling team at the Paris Olympics brought home 11 medals, eight of which came from the track.

What I had not known was that Renishaw, one of Business West’s most prominent members, has been a major contributor to those victories.

Renishaw, Gloucestershire’s largest privately owned company, is of course a world leading supplier of measuring and manufacturing systems. Its a global business with over 5,000 employees located in the 36 countries where it has wholly owned subsidiary operations.

After the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, British Cycling wanted to extend its partnership with Lotus Engineering, Renishaw, and Hope Technology to develop and manufacture its bike for the 2024 Games.

Ben Collins, Lead Additive Manufacturing (3D Printing) Engineer at Renishaw, takes up the  story:

“After determining that British Cycling could not produce core and seat post components in carbon fibre within the shorter time frame required, we began creating some additively manufactured prototypes in plastic.

“Additive manufacturing enabled us to create complex geometries that removed any unnecessary weight while delivering the strength required for the athletes to reach racing speed.”

British Cycling’s partnership with Renishaw resulted in the bike having a first of its kind aerodynamic seat post featuring a hollow centre and a backwards leaning design allowing airflow through the centre of the bike.

Over the course of the Olympics project, Renishaw manufactured over 1,000 parts to support 32 track bikes plus spares.

This was an amazing skills partnership in the national interest of sport by Renishaw which has an enviable record of local community involvement.

For instance, as part of the company’s 50th anniversary celebrations last year, Renishaw donated a total of £150,000 to charities and not for profit organisations located in the countries where it has operations.

This included the Trussell Trust, the foodbank provider in the UK, with all its branches local to the company’s sites in Gloucestershire and South Wales receiving a donation.

I like Renishaw’s purpose as a company: Transforming tomorrow together.

Their innovation and sense of partnership working with customers and supporting their communities just goes to prove that.