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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
November 18th, 2009 at 12:29 am
Nice article and pics. Thanks for sharing it. I would love to read your further posts.