Oregon State Formula

YouTube DirectLaying up the lower mold for GFR10

YouTube DirectUpper plug assembly

Go Go Monocoque!!

As part of SAE’s Industrial Lecture Program, Formula SAE judge Steve Fox will lecture at OSU on January 9th. President of Powertrain Technology Inc. and a veteran of 40 years in motor racing, Steve has actively contributed to the Formula SAE events since he started as a design judge in 1999. Steve is currently the Captain of the Design Event at FSAE-East(VIR) and Chief Design Judge at Formula Student Germany.

Steve will share his knowledge and experiences in motorsport covering technical topics such as vehicle dynamics and chassis design as well as project management topics.

Formula SAE: A Design Judge’s Perspective
Saturday January 9th, 10 AM
Covell 221
Oregon State University
Corvallis, OR 97331

This lecture is open to all students and faculty.  If you would like to attend please contact us.

Contact:
Trevor Takaro
Co Captain
Formula SAE
Oregon State University
takarot@onid.orst.edu

So finals are finished, the term is complete, and everyone is ready for a real break. That is, everyone except the team, which is powering through strong as ever into the manufacturing phase. While tensions run high with the cold weather and aggressive schedule, we can look forward to a driving car earlier in the year than ever before. With Formula SAE Michigan a full month ahead of Formula SAE California, the first event we attended last year, a driving car can’t come a moment too soon.

On another note, I finally found the time to look though the professional photos from Formula Student Germany (found here) and came across a great picture of the 2009 European crew:

Thanks to FSG photographer Klaus Bergmann for the photo.

As well as one of Benny posing on top of the DHBW Ravensburg car:

Thanks to FSG photographer Ingo Reichmann for the photo.

-Trevor

Go easy on the caffeine guys!

Trenton the CATIA and Teamcenter guru takes charge

Brad hard at work

Keep up the good work team!

Did you see us at the Beaver Open House on Saturday. We had both Formula and Baja 09 in the beautiful Kelly Engineering Center atrium.

Last week, OSU SAE had the unique opportunity to attend the 2009 SAE AeroTech Congress & Exhibition in Seattle, WA. Basically a trade show for the aerospace industry, with companies exhibiting everything from composite fasteners to NC coding software, AeroTech was a great opportunity to get the word out about OSU SAE to a large group of industry professionals.

Trevor and Jasmine with the 09 Formula and Baja cars.

The week started early Monday morning, when the team left Corvallis to pick up the 09 Formula car in Portland. The car had just returned from Germany, having completed its European tour. While the crate had arrived in Portland at 5 am, due to the large volume of paperwork required to release the car following shipment we were not able to take delivery until 3 pm.
Hoping to find a dry place to unpack the shipping crate and re-assemble the car, we continued toward Seattle, crate in tow. It wasn’t until late that night that we arrived in Seattle, having spent hours in stop and go traffic. The rest of the night would be spent assembling the car and preparing it for the next day’s show.

Tuesday and Thursday were spent showing the cars and talking to company representatives. Lots of cutting edge technologies were on display, from all-composite fasteners to metal deposition modeling to fastener installation guns which log number of tightened fasteners and torque specs. The rapid prototyping products available were particularly interesting, with certain plastic compounds sealing well enough to hold vacuum, and other laser deposition metallic parts approaching strength levels of some of the machinable alloys.

One company demonstrated their damper dynamometer technologies with a miniature shock dyno running an RC car shock. Another showed off its thermal analysis software and how it could be applied to everything from human ergonomics to vehicle brake rotors. A third was showcasing reconfigurable fixtures for everything from welding operations to vehicle assembly. Over the two days of the exhibition, we talked to more than 30 companies with products or services related to our project.

Thursday started early as well, with a 6 am visit to Barton Machine, sponsor of the 2009 and 2010 car uprights. While our tight schedule permitted only a short early-morning visit, it was really a pleasure to talk with the machinists and display the car which they had helped build. Part of what makes the Formula SAE program so valuable is that it allows engineering students to work closely with professional machinists and engineers in the field, enhancing the real-world application of the engineering skills learned in the classroom.

Following closely on the heels of the visit to Barton was a tour of PACCAR’s Technical facility in Burlington, WA. PACCAR makes a variety of large (semi) trucks, and so naturally interest students in our program.

Concluding the very long Thursday was Oregon SAE Student Night. Every year student teams from Oregon who compete in the SAE collegiate design series competitions come together for the Student Night to showcase their programs. This year the other teams included the University of Portland’s Baja SAE, AeroDesign and Supermileage teams, Portland State University’s Formula SAE team, and our own Baja team. With a technological presentation on Daimler Trucks’ new Innovation Truck, a guest speaker on how to get a job in the current economic climate and presentations by the student teams, the event was quite a success. It is always exciting to get to talk to other student teams going through similar projects, as many issues and challenges are universal to student engineering teams.

By Thursday night, the team had arrived back in Corvallis and the 2009 Formula car was back home after nearly four months abroad. In typical Formula SAE fashion, our focus now turns back to the new car, still in the design phase. Over the next month we will complete our designs and begin manufacturing into winter term. I’ll keep you posted on updates.

-Trevor

Did you see us at homecoming? OSU SAE was outside the football stadium on Saturday giving out candy and offering seats in the 08 Formula and 09 and 08 Baja cars.

The next few weeks will be a flurry of activity as we continue the design phase of the year. In about three weeks we will have the unique opportunity to be a part of the 2009 SAE AeroTech Congress and Exhibition. Basically an aerospace trade show, companies from around the US will converge on Seattle the second week of November to showcase their products and services. Among them will be Oregon State University SAE.

We are very excited to be able to showcase our winning Formula and Baja vehicles and meet professionals in the aerospace industry. This is a fantastic opportunity to learn more about new aerospace products as well as get the word out about OSU SAE. More information on the exhibition can be found here.

Later that week, we will also take both cars to the Oregon SAE student night. The Oregon chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers holds a student night every year to let the student teams get together and present their vehicles and competition results. It’s a great time to relax and get to know the students from the other Oregon schools competing in the same events. SAE members are welcome to attend: more information can be found here.

Back in Corvallis, we are hard at work designing the 2010 car. With lots of new changes this year and an aggressive schedule, the team has their work cut out for them.

The powertrain team hard at work

We will be heading to Detroit this summer to compete among the best teams in world at Formula SAE Michigan. With teams from all over the world registered for the event, the competition promises to be quite an event. Look for us, we’ll be car 11.

-Trevor