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.
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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!
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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.
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[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.
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During the last kart outing of this year, the driver selection has come to an end. At this point, the official driver training will start. At Van der Ende Racing Inn’s kart track in Poeldijk, the drivers of the season 2009-2010 proved why they were chosen as drivers for this year. This track is the longest indoor kart track of Europe (an astonishing 1.3 kilometers), which, due to its technical nature, is a good training for the drivers. After one heat of exploration, the drivers discussed heavily about the ideal line, which they used during the second heat. In the third heat, the fastest times were set, even the fastest of that day.
From now on, the intensive driver training will officially start, which will prepare the drivers for testing the new DUT10 and drive at the events in England en Germany this year.
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Last week, two members of our team went to Airbus in Bristol (UK) to produce the rear engine & differential mount. Airbus offered this opportunity to the team as a prize for winning the Lightweight Vehicle Award at Formula Student UK 2009.
The produced part mounts the engine to the rear of the chassis and also houses the differential bearings and the chain tensioning system. Thanks to the Additive Layer Manufacturing technique, all of these functions are now fulfilled by a single part built of titanium.
The new design combines 10 parts into 1 and resulted in a weight reduction of 30%.
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Just like the progress made on the chassis, the suspension is going according to schedule as well. In order to speed up the production even more, we make use of spark eroding techniques from Ter Hoek. With spark eroding we save time compared to last year, when all geometry brackets were made by CNC milling machines.
Spark eroding is a machining technology with which materials can be milled extremely accurately by electrical discharges (sparks) between an electrode and the work piece. The great advantage of spark eroding is the complex shapes that can be made by using this technique. Therefore, it is very suitable to make geometry brackets for the DUT10.
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The production has shifted into top gear these past 2 months. The sleepless nights over the Structural Equivalency Form, a document that proves our monocoque has the same structural properties as a tubular space frame, were cause of severe stress amongst many team members. It was therefore time for a relaxing evening last Wednesday. While enjoying the infinite amount of spare-ribs at Breintje Beer, many DUTRacing stories were cited. Finally, when even the last DUTRacer was fed up with ribs, the team returned to the workplace to prepare the DUT09 for testing the next day.
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Many of our team members took the car or train to Hengelo in the eastern part of the Netherlands the past weeks. A lot of different team members have gained the experience of producing glass fibre and wooden moulds for some carbon fibre parts of our car. In cooperation with Groothuis BV. we were able to produce the third cockpit mould and the side pod moulds. Next to that also the steering, plenum, diffuser and fuel tank moulds were produced at Groothuis.
Every year the team produces many parts out of carbon fibre. These fibres fit well into our lightweight concept, but also allow for stiffer and more efficient designs. Using vacuum injection, we are able to produce all these parts in-house. The only parts we cannot produce ourselves completely are the moulds, which need to be air-tight. We are therefore very grateful to Groothuis for sharing their resources and expertise to enable the production of all these moulds.
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Last couple of weeks, the chassis team has been working hard on the production of the monocoque. First step was to finish all moulds and treat them with release agents. After this, the actual production could start. The monocoque consists out of 3 parts, the upperside was first in line. All layers of carbon fibers were positioned in the mould quite rapidly. There were no big issues during the placement of the fibers. Thanks to Fatol, who supplied the resin from Axson, it was possible to finish the production of the upperside at the beginning of last week. This was done by vacuum injecting the fibers with the resin. Everything seemed to go well, but untill the resin has not been cured completely, no clue can be made. Two days later the exciting moment occured: removal of the product from the moulds. Fortunately, the result was as intended!
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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.
