Valcourt, Québec, May 12, 2007 — Last week BRP revealed the first details of its all-new Can Am DS 450. Now, more is revealed about the sport ATV: its Altec aluminum frame. This high-tech frame is the lightest frame in the industry. The engineering team was able to keep the weight down by using ultra-modern lock-bolts instead of traditional welds to hold the frame members together. And frame rigidity is enhanced with its dual-pyramid structure.
Company President and CEO José Boisjoli challenged the engineering team to make the DS 450 with the lightest weight, lowest unsprung weight, most mass centralization, and highest power at the time of its release. Watch as the story of this ATV unfolds during the upcoming weeks.
Visit Can-Am's Teaser Site to see full reveal details on the challenges from the president and CEO, and now the frame. In the coming weeks more details about this groundbreaking machine will be revealed, keep checking and spread the word.
Technical Information
Feature: ALTEC twin-pyramidal triangulated 3D structure
Benefit: Low weight improves vehicle control and reduces rider fatigue
Technical summary: Triangulated structures requires less material.
How does it work?: It is common knowledge that aluminum flexes much more than steel. Making a rigid aluminum frame with the traditional ladder-type (box) structure would require a lot of gusseting and thicker members to prevent excessive strain. In a triangulated structure, loads are converted into pure tension and compression forces — instead of bending — which allow aluminum to be used at its best.
Feature: Finite Element Analysis
Tech summary: Finite Element Analysis is used to optimize strength and weight.
How does it work?: To design a component that is neither too thin (not strong enough), nor too thick (too heavy), engineers build a computer model of it with tens of thousands of sticks and nodes and then submit it to a virtual torture called Finite Element Analysis (FEA) with CAITA software. FEA results show the level of stress in each element of the computerized structure. The red color indicates that the stress level approaches the limit of the material. The blue color shows that the load in that area is much lower than what the section can take. The goal is to balance the structure, adding material where the stress level is high and remove material where the stress level allows it.
Feature: No-weld structure
ATV Sport
Tech summary: Aluminum is kept at its optimal mechanical properties by avoiding welding.
How does it work?: Aluminum has very interesting mechanical properties to build lightweight structures, but one big drawback: welding it drastically reduces its torsional properties. So you are forced to beef up the members, to increase thicknesses and/or to add gussets to achieve the desired strength after welding. All this means overweight.
Feature: Lock-bolts
Tech summary: Lightweight aluminum fastener with high clamping force.
How does it work?: Aluminum lock-bolts are much lighter than the traditional steel and nut assembly. A lock-bolt is a two-piece fastener that provides a high, uniform and permanent clamp performance that resists loosening. The bolt part is pre-stretched and the nut part is basically pressed in place over the deep grooves of the bolt shank. Since there are no threads, the assembly is vibration resistant and can maintain clamping forces that are significantly higher than the cycling load level, which result in quasi-infinite fatigue life. These are the characteristics that lead Airbus to also select lock-bolts to grip the 119-foot wings of their flagship, the A380, the world's largest aircraft.
Frame weight test
All numbers provided by Can-Am
ATV Sport
Can-Am's aluminum lock-bolt (left) saves plenty of extra weight versus the traditional bolt (top right) when added together. Holding the two bolts in your hands provides a noticeable weight difference. The lock-bolt will be quite a bit shorter when cut and crimped.
Weight of the frame with comparable components and equivalent functions, including rear grab bar, foot pegs, engine support, front suspension support.
Results: The Can-Am DS 450 weighs in at 36.9 pounds, which is 5.3 pounds lighter than the Kawasaki KFX450R — 42.2 pounds — with comparable components. The worst in class is 56.9 pounds and isn't called out by Can-Am.
Conclusion: The Can-Am weighs 5.3 pounds (13 percent) less than the best-in-class competitor and 20 pounds less (35 percent) less than the worst. This allows the engineer team to take one stop closer to meeting one of BRP CEO Jose Bosijoli's four challenges.
