SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY
FORMULA STUDENT NEWSLETTER
June 2015
General Overview - A message from SHU Racing Team Principal
- Steering design and testing complete
- Wheel and Tyres
- The Chassis
- Website development
- Promoting SHU racing
- The business report
- Profile of Gary Bush
- Sponsors
A message from our team principal
“The past month saw the team take a significant step forward in the production of SHUR15 as we look forward to FSUK. Work on all aspects of the car is progressing swiftly and now the exam season is over, the team is ready for the final push to Silverstone.�
Steering design and testing complete
The flax fibre material for the steering wheel has been tested and is able to withstand the forces present within the cockpit. 100Nm of torque is able to be transmitted through the system from the drive input to the wheels. The bearing housing components have recently been manufactured and are ready to be fitted into the chassis. As can be seen the design has been optimised from that which was previously rapid prototyped. The steering wheel has been machined and is now ready for assembly. The display frame has been plasma cut and requires some final preparation. Red elephant skin effect alcantara has been selected to coat the grips. The plan is to have the wheel complete in the next week.
Wheel and Tyres One of the main design ambitions for the 2015 car was to ensure tight packaging of components, this meant squeezing all unsprung components within the cavity of the wheel. To improve on performance and reduce weight the author made the decision to move from 13” to 10” wheels, this initially adds much more complexity to the design process and brings to light even more packaging issues. To increase the design envelope within the wheel a 10 inch wheel with large offset range was required. Once selection parameters were identified the search for appropriate wheels could begin, Braid offer a wide range of wheels that would be suitable, the Braid FSAE Tenrace were selected due to the large range of available offsets. The specification for the wheels are as follows; 6” x 10” ET+38 Tyres 2014 saw the car struggle to lock all 4 wheels during the brake test, this was partly due to having a large contact patch (7 inch, 177.8), a reduction in tread width would reduce the contact patch and provide us with a greater chance of passing the brake test. With the decision to run 10” wheels and narrow tread there was limited choice for high performance racing compound tyres.
The Chassis
The first stages of the chassis manufacture. It was very much a ‘bottom-up’ approach The floor was completed and ‘tacked up’ before the roll hoops, front bulkhead and differential mounting face were all added as control planes for the rest of the structure.
Having the jig made creating the chassis more efficient and more straightforward than in previous years. Safe in the knowledge that the jig was assembled correctly and exactly as designed in CAD, the jig was used as a base to measure key points off.
A ‘fish-mouthing’ machine or ‘tube-notcher’ was used to create the radial cuts in the end of each tube. This was a huge improvement on the manual methods used in previous years, meaning reduced scrap and a higher degree of accuracy
The chassis was a real team effort, with students from across the spectrum helping at one time or another. First and second year team members developed practical skills as well as a deeper knowledge of chassis design.
The completed chassis out of the jig and ready to be fully welded up
Website development Written by Jason Marshgreen
Why a new website for SHU Racing?
In the next month or so I’m looking to give the website a bit of a re-fresh. With our current site restricted in terms of editing the design and managing content, I’m looking to change the website builder to Wix which is a more user friendly website builder. This will allow the team managers, business team and future recruits to easily edit and change the site so everyone can have a say! No coding skills are needed just a bit of creativity and patience to learn the basic tools.
What are the benefits?
The new site will have a stronger brand image and nicer looking layout. Sponsors will benefit as they will be more easily visible in the footer on every page as well as having their own pages with information about the benefits they provide to the team. The site responds to the strong marketing efforts by the bigger teams competing in the formula student competition, allowing the team to better advertise the brand and sponsors to various stakeholders. The site will be much more user friendly, easily accessible and available for future generations in the team. This will help the growth and expansion of the team over the coming years, with one website builder accessible to all. Furthermore, it means everyone can have a say in the team and get involved in non-engineering roles, learning new skills for future career paths. Benefits the university brand image, having a racing team with a professional looking website that should encourage more college leavers to join Sheffield Hallam and join the team!
From this to this
When will it be up and running? The site is going to take some time, and is likely to be an ongoing process; however I’m looking to get it up and running by mid next month, possibly earlier.
Promoting SHU racing New silverstone poster
Stephanie Tasker studies graphic design BA(Hons) and is in her year final year at Sheffield Hallam. As one of her graduation projects she has designed this poster to promote the team through the silverstone competition. Using movement and lines to represent both the engeneering and the competition side of the team whilst still giving the poster depth and a sense of mystery. “Simplicity is the best way to grab people’s attention�
Making shu racing in to a viable business
To support the design and build of the car, the team must create a financially viable business plan. The business plan is an extensive document that must support the team’s theoretical plans to enter the amateur motorsport industry. The objective of the Business plan and Dragon’s Den style presentation event is to convince a company, represented by the panel of judges to invest in the project. Each team is encouraged to think about the full lifecycle of a project starting with the initial concept and user requirements, set design targets, then design a prototype to achieve those targets, moving to larger scale manufacture, and then selling or distributing the car, throughout this aspect of the project the customer is key to the success of the team. Due to the competitive nature of the amateur motorsport industry, it is vital for the business team to justify the market position of the business in relation to its competitors. Work on the Business plan is well underway and is being produced by team members from differing academic backgrounds to ensure full utilisation of valuable skills within the numerous sections of the plan. Team PR Officer Sophie Fenelon is keen to state the plan’s importance to the overall project, “The business side of the Formula Student project carries as much significance as the engineering of a functioning car. We must present ourselves as a genuine business and given that the industry is so competitive, we are hoping to create a plan that reveals SHU Racing’s potential for success.”
Profile of Gary Bush
Course: 1st Year BSc Mathematics
What attracted you to SHU Racing? I came to university with the aim of eventually making it to F1 in some way but without any idea of how to make the link from Maths. Then I was introduced to SHU Racing. This seemed the perfect way to make that link whilst learning about engineering and gaining invaluable skills that I wouldn’t get from anywhere else.
Jobs you have undertaken since signing up? I started off by doing research for things such as the pedal box. I spent time with engineers taking apart the old car, moving it for things such as open days and then putting it back together again. More recently I’ve been able to source parts for the pneumatic gear change system and also helping to make the chassis by cutting and shaping the tubing.
What you like about the team? Being part of the team has given me many opportunities I wouldn’t have had any other way. I’ve been able to learn how to weld, use machinery and also increase my engineering and mechanical knowledge. I haven’t been treated any different due to being a Maths student and have been given jobs that I am capable of as well as others I’ve been able to complete with help.
Hopes for team? I hope that the team can get to a stage where there are many people wanting to join each year and move up to management from within the team. This would also mean that the car would be evolved each year rather than having to redesign everything. Then we could hopefully start to climb higher in the standings at the competition.
Final car design
SPONSORS
Website: www.shuracing.co.uk Email: Shuracing.fs@gmail.com Twitter: SHU_Racing_Team Facebook: SHU Racing Team