Everyone has been working hard on the chassis in order to get it ready before next Monday. Then, the chassis is moved to Glasurit to have its first layer of paint, after which CPH takes care of the air brushing. Because of the strict deadline, work has been done day and night to get everything finished. Examples are connecting the 3 parts out of which the monocoque exists, drilling all holes for the attachment of the suspension system and engine moutings and producing both sidepods.

Since the tolerance of the position of the holes for the suspension system is very small, professional help was required. Faro offered their help by letting us use their FaroArm, which can measure all 3D positions from a certain reference point. Using this technique, we were able to determine the position of the holes accurately.

After drilling the holes, the chassis was ready for the last treatment. It was placed for 24 hours in a normal oven. This is done to get the resin in its optimal condition. In the oven, the polymers form longer chains, which improve the quality of the product. Due to our production process, no autoclave (a pressurized oven) is needed, which saves us a reasonable amount of money.

This weekend most parts of the chassis will be finished. Hereafter it takes about a week until the car is back with a nice paintjob!

Parcels are brought to us daily which contain new parts for the DUT10. Varying from a pallet filled with tires to the new differential. Special attention goes out to the spindles for the DUT10. Spindles are subparts of the innerwheel, which allow the wheel to rotate around a standing still innerwheel.
The last couple of years we have had problems with the spindles. The spindles were heavily loaded on bumpy tracks. Due to the intensity of the loads, the spindles broke down. The spindles for the DUT10 are re-designed which makes sure the spindles can handle the high loads generated on these bumpy tracks. The NLR produced these revised version of our spindle design with which we hope to have eliminated this problem.

Apart from spindles, the NLR is also responsible for the production of other parts concerning the innerwheels. Examples are uprights and outer inserts. The upright and the outer insert are parts of the car which connect the suspension to the wheels, which also contain the spindles. Due to the complex shape of these parts, the NLR produces these parts according to our production drawings.

[This article was published on April 1st. Therefore, the content is intended as an April's fool. The actual reason for the test was not because of Formula Student Electric.]

The last few months intensive negotiations took place between the Formula Student teams of the TU Delft and Uni Stuttgart. After finalizing the arrangement this weekend, we are very proud to present to you a joint venture between the two teams.

As pilot project for this new cooperation the construction of a single electric race car has been selected. “The idea for cooperation was born, because both DUT-E Racing Delft as well as GreenTeam Uni Stuttgart lacked the man power to tackle the large challenges they found themselves confronted with,” Simon Teufel of GreenTeam Uni Stuttgart explains. It was not long before both teams found each other. Teufel: “Combining the know-how and experience of the Delft and Stuttgart teams is guaranteed to improve this situation.”

Last weekend the final negotiations took place in Delft, where both teams met in person. A joint testing day was organized as cover-up for the meeting. “The result for both parties is most pleasing,” says Remco Advocaat (DUT-E Racing Deflt), “the build quality impressive track-record of Rennteam Uni Stuttgart marry well with the light-weight expertise of Delft combined with knowledge of eletric drive trains available at the TU Delft.”

For now, both teams will continue to exist, because of legal implications. The only difference is that at the competition they are represented by one car, and one team name. This means all sponsoring contracts remain legally valid. The main difference is the increased chance of winning the first Formula Student Electric competition, since two of the world’s top Formula Student teams join forces to discover unknown territory: the purely electric Formula Student car.

Good communication between Stuttgart and Delft has been established by means of online file sharing technology and regular teleconferences.

More information on the joint venture will follow shortly.