Case Study: Airbus APWorks achieves a revolutionary lightweight 3D-printed Light Rider with Altair

Airbus APWorks - Customer Case Study

Airbus APWorks, the Airbus Group subsidiary behind the Light Rider electric motorcycle prototype, faced the challenge of creating a highly complex, branched hollow frame optimized for metal additive manufacturing while meeting strict load, assembly and printing constraints. To address structural design for additive manufacturing, Airbus APWorks relied on Altair’s simulation tools, principally the HyperWorks suite (HyperMesh, OptiStruct and HyperView), to drive topology optimization and simulation-driven design.

Using Altair’s tools, Airbus APWorks generated and refined topology-optimized geometries, validated them with finite element analysis, and adapted designs for 3D printing and assembly—leveraging Airbus’s Scalmalloy® material for production. The result, enabled by Altair, is a revolutionary lightweight design: the Light Rider weighs 35 kg total with the frame just 6 kg, delivering 0–45 km/h in 3 seconds, demonstrating substantial weight savings, performance gains and manufacturability via additive manufacturing.

Airbus APWorks

Patrick Schürmann

Project Engineer for Optimization and Design