...October 2017 was a full month for us. It included planning events, manufacturing, and writing reports. We had two large events starting with the Ingenium Conference at the Convention. It was great to have all five UMSAE teams show up. We were able to show off our progress on the vehicle to Professional Engineers in the industry. Our second event was the Evening of Excellence. We presented to high school students, showing them what we do as a team.
This month, most of the systems have been focusing on getting parts manufactured and writing design reports for each new part.
The accumulator system finished procuring the square steel angle bracket and jigs to complete the Energy Storage Container Frame. They had their remaining busbars water-jetted by Shape Industries which will allow them to finish manufacturing their busbars and to ultimately complete the high current path.
Breaks and uprights is well into the manufacturing phase. Detailed drawings for the hubs and uprights were made in order for the manufacturers to accurately make the part. The method of mounting the wheel speed sensors has also been finalized.
The circuitry system completed a successful full system bench test. This test used the completed Vehicle Control Unit and HV PCB along with most of the Accumulator Control Unit to operate the motor controller and turn the motor. The circuitry system is now working on revising the Low Voltage Power PCB and finalizing enclosures and wire harnesses.
Software worked alongside the circuity system to compete a proper start up routine during an electrical system bench test. This enabled the throttle encoder to control the motor.
The frame has been completely fitted and welded and is now awaiting suspension components for a full rolling chassis. The team is now starting to source fiberglass and machining resources to begin manufacturing body panels.
In terms of suspension, the A-Arms are almost fully welded. The team just needs to add the tabs. The tires have been selected. Both slick and wet tires will be purchased. The tires will have 10’ diameter rims.
The powertrain team has been receiving their parts from manufacturers and is working on the Design Report. One of the major parts they got this month was the motor shaft, thanks to the Cahrd Institute.
Driver Interface manufactured the pedals, pedal box, dashboard, firewall and the various tabs this month. Currently they are waiting on a fibreglass shipment in order to start on the seat, steering wheel, and headrest.
We hope to have just as productive a month in November. It has been exciting seeing the vehicle coming together. We hope to complete on time, according to schedule.
Electric News
The month of September was filled with many different events and manufacturing. We started the month with recruitment for new members. This began with the EngO event. We were able to interact and encourage first year students to join our team. In this event, we saw considerable interest in our team. We hope to see the new students contributing to our team soon. In addition to this, we held our recruitment meeting where lots of students came to see the responsibilities of each section of the team. At the end of September, we were able to finish our recruitment by talking to all student engineers at Tech Soc Fair. Also this month, we held our annual sponsorship tour and was able to visit some of our sponsor with all five UMSAE teams (seen in photo above).
...The Electric team is continuing with the progress of the two year build cycle and has begun manufacturing. The brand new battery cells from our sponsor, Melasta, have arrived and we are currently in the process of constructing a detailed step-by-step manufacturing and disassembly plan for the battery pack in order to assure the utmost safe and reliable assembly of the cells. ...
The Formula SAE Electric competition was over three months ago now, and we have since begun work on our next car. However, after our return, we were still not finished with ePBR16. Just because the competition has passed does not mean that there is nothing left to learn from the car. ...
