January Update

Northwestern's winter break has ended and the team has gotten off to a roaring start in 2010. We've been working to prepare our car for our next set of races this summer, but we've also begun the process of designing our next solar car, known as "Stephen." Some of the specific things we've accomplished include:

Wheels: The team has ordered new carbon fiber wheels from Japan. These wheels are much lighter than our current wheels and will allow us to run more efficently. Even more importantly, they will eliminate the galling problem that has long plagued our current tires.

Electrical System: The electrical system on sc5 was a complex mess of wires, connectors and plugs. This made it difficult to organize and test the system. As a result, we built a new wooden container that allows us easier access to the system and ensures it will remain organized. This should help us test and operate the car in the future.

Mocking up the New Car: As part of the design process, we needed to build a proof of concept for our next solar car. We accomplished this by extending and modifying a bike so that the suspension worked like it would on our next solar car. The mock up seemed very stable and successful in initial testing.

Designing the New Car: Finally, we've recently begun to make CAD models of certain parts of our new car. As part of this process, many of our newest members are being trained in the art of CAD modeling. These models will be essential when it comes time to actually produce the parts and build the car.

Posted by Michael

December Update

Northwestern has a three-week-long break during the month of December for the winter holidays and New Year's celebrations, but that didn't stop the team from meeting and working. In addition to online meetings, several local members met up to tackle various projects.

1) Hubs:

Along with the help of the Northwestern shop experts, we spent three days learning how to use our CNC turning center to manufacture our spare hubs. We successfully imported our model, generated tool paths, set up the machine, and ran several operations with our aluminum barstock (thank you, Alcoa!). The parts should be finished up when we return to campus next week.

2) Inventory:

The following week, we worked on inventorying all of our equipment and supplies, and then we organized it all in a logical way. We also created an electronic version so that items can be searched for and found easily. This should help the team stay organized and make it quicker to find things when we need them.

3) Cycle Shops and Fluent Training:

We spent several days contacting local bicycle and motorcycle shops for advice on our future generation vehicle. They helped us understand some of the dynamics we might be dealing with when using the setup we've proposed. They also gave us some advice and ideas about how to arrange geometries and materials to use. Along with this, some of our senior mech members have been working on learning the Fluent fluid analysis program, which we will use to optimize the aerodynamics of our next car.

4) New Members Begin Calling Sponsors:

As part of our ongoing sponsorship drive, we've assigned several companies to our new members. By calling them and going through the sponsorship process, they should get a good flavor of fundraising, and with 3 months experience on the team, they should be well-versed in . Hopefully, we will have good news to report as the calls get underway.

posted by Dana