Although the DUT10 is not finished yet, we have already started recruiting new students for the DUT11 team. Since the coming season will be very interesting for the Formula Student competition – will Formula Student Electric be a success or not? – recruitment for a new team is essential. To do so, we will be giving short pitches during lectures, distributing our very own DUT Collegeblok and demonstrating our car at various faculties at our university.

The recruitment campaign officially started last Friday, where we were present at 2 faculties to promote DUT Racing among many students during the so-called parents days. The active recruitment period ends at May 6th, when an “interesseborrel” will be given, where all interested students are welcome at our workshop. In the meantime, all team members are still working hard to get the DUT10 ready in time.

If you are interested in joining our team, leave your data here.

Last week, our chassis has been away from our workshop to have its paintjob done. The core team has designed a new layout for the DUT10. In the last couple of years, the paintjob was inspired on “Delft Blue”, well known from the blue ceramic tiles. This year however, a new style has been chosen. The new layout has been achieved by good collaboration between Glasurit for the base paint layer and Custom Painting Holland for the special effects in the paintjob. Until our roll-out, on the first of June, the paintjob remains a secret.

Now that the chassis is back at the workshop, the assembly of the car can really start. A tight schedule has been made in order to get the car ready half May. Before then, a lot of work has to be done by our engineers. The team members realize that fact. Yesterday, over 30 team members were present to work on the DUT10. This illustrates the level of motivation to complete our car in time!

The driveshaft is one of the most important parts of the drivetrain because they transfer the power from the engine to the wheels. The shafts are connected on one side to the wheels and on the other sides to the differential. Naturally, the shafts should be strong enough to cope with the torque generated by the engine. Apart from that, the shafts should be as light as possible to limit the losses in the drivetrain. To meet to these requirements, we produce our driveshafts out of carbonfibers. Given the fact that carbonfibers can be loaded in one direction, a special lay-up is required. This lay-up makes sure that the torque is transfered through the fibers onto the wheels nicely.

To produce these special driveshafts, we have made use of a filament winder of Futura. A filament winder places the fibers on the mould under an certain angle. Just before the fibers are placed onto the mould, the are impregnated with resin. When the resin is hardened, the driveshafts are ready to betaken of the moulds. After a couple of  tests, it turned out that the shafts met our requirements and therefore they are ready to be assembled on our car.