IperionX Limited (IperionX) announced a partnership with Canyon Bicycles GmbH (Canyon) to develop a more sustainable titanium supply chain for the bicycle industry through the production of bicycle components using IperionX’s 100% recycled and low-carbon titanium.
Canyon is an award winning bicycle manufacturer with a strong reputation for true innovation, implementing leading technologies, clean and clear design as well as the highest standards in quality and service. The potential to develop bicycle components utilizing IperionX’s 100% recycled titanium is aligned to its ambitions to drive the use of innovative material in the production process, and to match that with its environmental goals.
What does the partnership mean for the industry?
Canyon has previously shown its credentials in this area by investigating cradle-to-cradle production principles and is researching how to integrate similar approaches across advanced materials and future manufacturing platforms. As per agreement, IperionX is working closely with Canyon’s product development and ESG teams to produce bicycle components using IperionX’s low-carbon, recycled titanium metal powders via additive manufacturing methods.
The parties agreed to prototype Canyon bicycle parts, including for bicycle frames, using IperionX’s 100% recycled titanium produced by IperionX via additive manufacturing methods. The term of this agreement is until June 30, 2025. Upon completion of the initial prototyping, Canyon and IperionX intend to negotiate an agreement for larger scale production.
Titanium as a frame material has a premium and desirable position for bicycle consumers, being both very strong and lightweight, including around half the weight of steel, and being extremely corrosion resistant, removing the requirement for paint as a corrosion inhibitor.
However, until now, its utilization in bike components has been limited by its high cost compared to materials such as carbon frames, as well as the high-carbon footprint of the current titanium supply chain, which is based on the energy-intensive Kroll process.
The bicycle industry is a large, growing market with around 1.3 billion adults riding bikes, total sales of ~US$70bn in 2021 and the market projected to grow to ~US$85bn in 2025. Mountain bikes, gravel bikes, road bikes and hybrids, make up ~60% of global bike sales by unit, and ~70% of sales in the highly valuable European and North American markets.
The high end sector of this market, the focus of Canyon’s product offering, has a very large market size of ~US$18bn, expected to grow to ~US$30bn in 2030. The IperionX and Canyon deal marks another milestone in the highly visible and sustainability focused global bicycle market, and complements IperionX’s recent partnerships in the luxury goods sector.
What does this mean for IperionX and Canyon Bicycles?
Alison Jones, COO at Canyon said: “We’re delighted to have formed this working relationship with IperionX. Connecting IperionX to our product development and ESG teams allows us to identify bicycle components that can be produced using their low-cost, low-carbon, fully recycled titanium powders. This is a breakthrough tech and we look forward to deploying this innovative tech in the production of more sustainable titanium for use in Canyon bicycles.”
Anastasios (Taso) Arima, IperionX CEO and MD said: “Our partnership with Canyon highlights the importance of fully circular, sustainable materials to clients with leading environmental goals. We are pleased to be applying the patented tech to create 100% recycled titanium parts for a leading company in a very large addressable market, and we look forward to progressing the partnership towards the extended use of titanium in bicycle production.”
