BOQS V4: Obsessively Refined
BOQS V3 was a success.
It found its way to the top of two podiums in the 2024 DH season. Once in Oil City, PA, and again in Connecticut for the ESC Intense DH, both in the sloppiest of conditions.
Over 500 units were shipped throughout the world, from Oregon to Austraila and everywhere in between.
Yet there was occasional feedback, centered largely around appearance, which can be a fickle thing.
Why are manufacturing marks on a CNC’d part “cool”, while layer lines on a FDM printed part “crude”?
But feedback is feedback, and every bit of it is always used to make CavaNero products better, and so it did for BOQS V4.
For version 4, a simpler single-slot upper mount replaces two tiny ones, an idea first debuted on the BOQSSER in March 2024. It worked just as well as the double-slots on other V3 BOQS and made the attaching/detaching of the fender from the mount easier and faster.
Next, the mount arm design is standardized across all BOQS models, and features a more aggressive hook to better retain the fender.
Other small changes to the mounts include weight reduction where possible and small aesthetic improvements.
The biggest challenge, ultimately, was aesthetics.
How can such a large, flat area as the top of the fender be made to eliminate the inevitable lines and scars that are left behind as the machine drags a hot nozzle across its surface? Hundreds of hours of test prints, design changes, and experimenting finally led to a revelation: flipping the damn thing upside down.
Much. Easier. Said. Than. Done…
Whereas all previous BOQS fenders were printed such that the underside (and least visible) part of the fender benefitted from the even texture of the print bed surface, V4 would be printed upside down.
Imparting the even, sandblasted texture of the print surface onto the material creates a uniform, virtually seamless finish on top of the BOQS fender. Meanwhile, the final layers of the print become the underside of a fender that ultimately gets hammered with mud and other debris and therefore doesn’t have the same finish requirements.
Some of the many prototypes experimenting with fender rigidity vs thickness vs material use vs print time…
While reversed print orientation was clearly a win for aesthetics, it raised some complications in terms of fender rigidity and thickness.
The V3 BOQS fenders used raised spines on top to increase stiffness in key areas, but now that the V4 was to be printed top surface first, there could be no more external, raised elements.
The solution was to thicken the entire V4 fender body, providing enough space to sandwich the two internal PETG layers, incorporate the equivalent material of the missing spines, and thereby retain the rigidity of the V3 fenders. Even so, the overall thickness of the V4 is 0.32mm THINNER than the V3 fender. A final aesthetic detail is a large fillet around the perimeter that tapers to a fine edge, resulting in a very refined final product.
The result is this: a flawless top surface on the new V4 fenders with very subdued graphics that are simply recessed into it. All the mounting interfaces are cut into that surface as opposed to raised from it, and it can have a variety of finishes depending on what surface it is printed. This new method of production also opens up new possibilities for multi-color options with the graphics under a solid top layer, so be sure to check in on the CavaLab from time to time to see what we’re cooking up.
