Newsletter May 2013 by Formula Student Team Delft

DUT racing team

Newsletter May

Content - Introduction - News - Interview with a sponsor, VDL - Interview with a DUT teammember

Racing

Formula Stude

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ent Team Delft The roll-out of the DUT13 is getting closer and closer every day and everyone is working hard to fulfil this magnificent design. Although last month was characterised by parts that were being produced, this month is a month of combining these parts to become a complete car. Everyone has designed a part of the car and it is always exciting to see if these parts also fit perfectly and form a system. The fact that the car is getting shape also motivates the team a lot.

ÂŠ Paul Brussee

Introduction This also applies to the drivetrain of the car. The design is complex and a lot of people have been involved with the design of this drivetrain which is completely confined within the wheel. In this edition of the newsletter you can read an interview with one of the engineers of the drivetrain, Jens Ravesloot. He knows as no other that cooperation is key. There is no room for communication errors and you only have one chance to come to a perfect design together. If the design is flawed, the complete car can be flawed and there is only a slim margin to redo.

Luckily we also have the help of engaging sponsors. One of those is VDL. Besides the fact that they help us with the design of the motor casings and the rims, it is nice to know that the production always goes according to the drawing. This is an exciting period wherein we need to show that our design is accurate to the detail. If we are able to build the car like we designed it, I have the utmost confidence that we built the best Formula Student racecar to date.

- Marco de Gier Chief Drivetrain

News

Racing

Eindhoven Open Whilst the current team is busy working on the production of the DUT13, the old team members were busy preparing the old cars for the Eindhoven open. A competition where all Formula Student cars can participate, organised by our fellow competitors, University Racing Eindhoven (URE). They organised the event to honour their tenth anniversary. In total 21 cars participated in the competition. The first event was the super acceleration, 75 meters straight, round the cone and back as fast as possible. The DUT12, well known for its incredible acceleration, put down the winning time on its first try. Unfortunately it went wrong after the finish line, while braking you could hear a strange ticking noise, the rear axle had broken. It was a good thing Delft was not that far away so we could get the reserve

axles. In the afternoon the DUT11 managed to ride some very good times on the autocross. The last lap felt like the winning lap, yet the team from Darmstadt managed to cut down a few more milliseconds and take the win, so the DUT 11 was second on the autocross. The DUT12 was repaired just in time to do the autocross and became third.

Formula Stude

Motor updat

Like last year with the DUT12, the motors are engineered by ourselves in close cooperation with AMK. AMK is specialised in the development of drive systems and are involved in designing electric motors but also the complete control and support system around The next day was the endurance, it. A couple weeks ago the new 22 km of continuous riding on the motors were assembled almost same track as the autocross with a driver change halfway through. The DUT11 drove fast and clean barely hitting any cones, this resulted in the second place at the endurance. Both cars went home with a prize at the end of the competition. The DUT12 for the 1st place in the acceleration event and the DUT11 for the 3rd place in the overall competition.

DUT is look

- Christiaan Hulleman -

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te completely. This was done in cooperation with AMK who also deliver the stator and rotor for the motors. Before this could happen, other essential parts were needed for assembly. For instance the motor casings produced by VDL ETG, the shafts (AMK), the bearing housings (VAF Instruments) and the bearings (SKF). After

we received all components for assembly, the motors could be assembled at AMK in Germany. There was even time to test them and it was a great success. At the moment we are still working hard to finish the cooling system of the motors. These are for instance the cooling ducts which have to be interconnected and the housing covering these ducts which still needs to be sealed such that the motor can be water cooled. When this is done the motors can be fully tested before being assembled on the DUT13 and enable it to accelerate extremely fast. - Chi Wai Kan -

king for new team members DUT Racing exists for almost 14 years and in these years, the team managed to find its way to the top. Winning and education have always been focal points within the team, but continuity is for sure not less important. While the 13th formula student race car from Delft, the DUT13, is being produced, old team members are already busy with the recruitment for the next team. The team that will be designing, producing and testing the DUT14. In the past couple of weeks, short presentations have been given during lectures. Flyers have been distributed, posters were hung up and a large banner has been gathering attention. Everything is done to reach as much students as possible and to make them

enthusiastic to fulfil a function within the team next year. And the awesomeness of this project is of course a fact! On the first of May a lot of interested students were able to see this in person. During the interest drink, they have been able to listen to a presentation about what a year at DUT Racing looks like and how incredibly awesome and valuable a year like this is. In the workshop a lot of old cars were displayed and even more (spare) parts were placed on different tables. Many team members were happy to explain the functions and details of these parts and they were able to answer all their questions. All in all this evening was a great success. Some lucky guys even had the opportunity to sit in one of our cars!

In short, the recruitment is at full speed, but it is not yet over! Are you interested, or do you know people that have interest in designing, producing and racing a race car? As a minor, part-time or full-time student? Do not hesitate and contact us via recruitment@ dutracing.nl! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity that you do not want to miss! When you still have some doubts, also contact us! We are always willing to answer any of your questions and even a guided tour is a possibility! - Robbin Suiker -

Interview

Racing

with a

Sponsor

VDL Enabling Technologies Group (ETG)

Strength through cooperation, that is the collective motto of VDL. VDL is an international industrial company devoted to the development, production and sales of semi-finished products, buses & coaches and other finished products. The group consists of in total more than 80 companies

spread throughout 18 countries with more than 9000 employees. The head office is located in Eindhoven and supervises all operating companies which function independently and are responsible for their own results. This structure ensures that the collective forms a strong team.

VDL Enabling Technologies Group (ETG) is a part of the VDL Groep. VDL ETG is a real manufacturing company and distributor of technical, high quality, capital intensive machines to OEM market leaders and users of advanced production lines. VDL ETG is involved more and more with the development of parts, modules and systems. To be able to execute these developments the company needs more and more higher educated engineers. Therefore VDL ETG opened a branch on the TU Delft campus.

Formula Stude

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This interview was held with Ronald van Bakel. He is a manufacturing engineer and project leader at VDL ETG. He is already working for the company for 25 years now. VDL ETG has produced motor casings and centers (rims) for the DUT Racing team. What was your roll in this? During the design process of these parts I gave feedback on the manufacturability of the design. Furthermore I was involved with the production of these parts. Do you see that the lack of practical experience of university students is a problem? Yes, it is a serious issue. In reality things are somewhat different. Sometimes parts are easy to draw, but in reality almost impossible to manufacture. Did you have that problem with our engineers as well? Yes, we had some parts that were very hard to produce so we suggested some minor changes to the design. In the end everything was a lot better than expected, during my career I have come past much worse cases.

Is this something you only see with students or does this encounter with your clients as well? This really varies from client to client. Starting at the concept phase, we try to direct our clients towards a more realistic design.

Would you say that this kind of counselling is a strong point of VDL ETG? Yes, for sure! I think VDL ETG is very good in making parts cheaper and easier to produce together with the client, but without changing the characteristic of the product too much. What could have gone better in the cooperation with the DUT Racing team? I think it would be easier for us if we were more involved at the start of the project. Now we had a part but we could not see the background of it. We missed the total view of what we were making. After some time we got to see more and more of the car in total, which was very nice.

We had a two-phase design process. First the motor casings, next the centers. Did you see any progression between these two? The points that had been brought to the attention had definitely improved. The only thing that could still be improved were the drawings. Sometimes the dimensions were indicated in a strange way but then we made our own version of the drawings and send it back so you had an idea how we would like to see the Imagine you were still studying yourself and you had the chance dimensions on the drawings. to join a student project like the A lot of feedback was given DUT Racing team, would you be afterwards based on the drawings. interested? Was there some feedback or Of course! I think this is a great communications before the design initiative! process? Yes! We looked at the I think I have posed all the manufacturability of the centers, questions I had, do you want to which is a very complicated part. add something to this interview? With some simple design changes I want to wish you the best of luck it was a lot easier to manufacture it, with the upcoming competitions! making it cheaper as well! This feedback was very useful to our engineers who designed these parts. Therefore we asked them what kind of feedback they received and what they learned from it. The majority of the feedback consisted of elements that were impossible to produce or were more easily producible by making a minor adjustment. Also some tolerances were to precise for the application. Other feedback related to tidying up the technical drawings by displaying the dimensions correctly. Drivetrain engineer Tim Blondeel summarised what he learned in the following sentence: â&#x20AC;&#x153;When designing also take into account manufacturability and not only functionalityâ&#x20AC;?

Interview with an

Engineer

name: Jens Ravesloot Study: 4th year Mechanical engineering Task: Transmission and innerwheel assembly

Racing

Formula Stude How did you end up at DUT and what is your task? I have always been very fond of cars and that is probably the main reason why I have joined DUT Racing. At DUT I have designed the transmission and I have been responsible for the whole design of our four wheel driven innerwheel drivetrain, which consists of a spur gear stage followed by a planetary gear stage, all integrated within the wheels. How do the expectations you had in the beginning of the year match the reality? I expected that DUT racing was like any other project I had with mechanical engineering, with the main difference that we were really going to build the designed product. I thought that I would just get a straightforward assignment, which I had to solve before the end of the year, but the opposite turned out to be true. We havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t got 70 small pieces of design which are fitted together, but one large overall design created by 70 engineers.

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Where are you most proud of? I am really proud of the design of our innerwheel drivetrain. Together with all the drivetrain engineers we worked day and night at DUT to design a drivetrain which is lightweight and can produce a large amount of torque. It is great to see how so much effort has resulted in a complex but working system. This of course not only accounts for the drivetrain, but also for the complete car.

What do you still want to accomplish this year? In the beginning of this year I started as an engineer in the drivetrain department, with the specific task to design the gears. After a while I became responsible for the design of the innerwheels. This means that besides the engineering part, I have to manage the design of the other parts in the wheels as well and I must say that I really enjoy it, so maybe I will apply for chief someday.

Which element of the Formula Student competition surprises you the most? Even though we and all the other teams are building a competitive car with the intention to win, all the teams are really open about their design. If, for instance, you are curious about a part of their design, they will be glad to explain you all the details, without being afraid that you will copy their ideas and concepts.