April 2014
Newsletter
Dear Reader, Springtime is here but even that couldn’t keep our members from working. In March we spent 3870 hours building the team’s new car, the FREC-004. This month the mechanics department finished the welding of the chassis, and with the help of our sponsors they have started the production of several other parts. The constituents of the battery, the suspension & steering system, and the test bench are manufactured in cooperation with Frimo, Büttner, AVL, Sandvik and Dendrit. Dendrit also lends a hand in the production of the uprights. The composite group
focused on making the highvoltage battery’s stack-house and the motor cover, and they also renovated the monocoque. The aerodynamics group carried out the problem-free impact test and they dealt with the mounting of the front wing. Our impact attenuator passed the crash test therefore we could upload the necessary documentations, which have already been accepted. This means we got one step closer to the German race!
In March the electronics department had plenty of work as well, for example we created the electronics for the temperature sensors and we also carried out motor starter experiments, so we had the
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chance to better understand the behavior of the motor controller and to test out some parameters. We took the time to write up the CAN communications, the motor controller and the virtual meters simulating the accelerator and brake pedals in LabVIEW. The High Voltage group compiled the FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) documentation, which is critical for our participation in the race, while the Low Voltage group fixed the problems that arose in the operating system of the microcontroller which controls the electronics. The wire harness group in cooperation with the LV support group spent all their resources on the CAD model of the wire harness and creating the documents necessary for its manufacturing. With the contribution of Macher the front wire harness has entered the final phase of production, and the manufacturing of the back wire harness has started. In addition we have started using the SVN server and working on telemetry, and we finished the development of the electronics embedded in the steering wheel,
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which we have already tested. Besides the manufacturing processes we spent a lot of our resources on appearances. Probably one of the most important events of this month was that our team was invited by the President of Motors Grandcoalition, István Knezsik to participate in the „Hungarians in the vehicle manufacturing of the world” exhibition which was held in the framework of the Car, Motor and Tuning Show (AMTS).
The official opening of three days long event took place on Friday, where our team manager, Gellért Katona gave an
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introductory presentation in front of the industry’s representatives. The other Hungarian Formula Student teams, KEFO Motorsport, Szengine and BME-motion were also present, just like the GAMF team from Kecskemét College. Together we represented the next generation of engineers.
BME Formula Racing Team displayed its last internal combustion car, Maula and the monocoque chassis. Béla Székely and Benjá-
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min Bruncsics even held a brief but interesting presentation about the design and production of the monocoque. In addition to AMTS we participated in the BME Job Fair, which was held between the 1213th of March in the university’s central building. We showcased Maula at the main entrance during the two days long event. We mainly talked to students who are interested in joining the team, but we had the chance to present the car to a surprisingly large number of foreigners as well. We even met a few members of a French Formula Student team, who remembered our car from the 2012 German race. The event provided an opportunity to talk to some of our sponsors and to get in touch with a few new companies as well. The Bosch Vision Day was held on March 29th at the company’s premises. BME Formula Racing Team attended the event with Maula, the last internal combustion car and we talked with quite a few engineers who were interested in our work. We held long conversations about the
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team, the cars, the international races and even employment. The other groups of the management department could not rest either. We have agreed upon the form and details of the cooperation with a number of our sponsors and we got in touch with new companies as well. The goal of the HR group was to further improve the quality of team memberships, and their plans were presented by the group leader, Zoltán Varga at the BME Job Fair. In order to boost the team’s life we also organized a team-building event where we
had the chance to relax and rest in addition to getting to know each other better. We do not want to neglect the education either, so this month graphIT Ltd. held a NX training session for us, and we took part in a LabVIEW seminar on measurement data acquisition at National Instruments. We have also started to organize Ansys Fluent courses at the CFD laboratories of the Department of Fluid Mechanics, which will start in April. In the upcoming weeks the car will reach the final stages of its assembly and organizing its presentation will also require a lot of work. Although the date of the 2014 Rollout is not yet certain, its location seems to be final, as it will be held at the hall of the university’s central building. The event will be connected to a daylong professional day. We will inform you about the details in the near future! Thank you for helping the team with your support! Sincerely, BME Formula Racing Team
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