About Us
Sub Teams
Suspension/Steering
Suspension/ steering engineers focus on stability, durability, maneuverability, and ride height. All being essential to the overall foundation of an off road vehicle. The main components consist of the tire itself, tire hub, knuckle, lower control arms, suspension coils and the shock absorbers. A variety of engineering aspects come into play such as static loading, dynamic loading, damping, and plenty of FEA analysis. Simulating the stress and failures of several components are vital to the suspension design which could be done on SolidWorks or ANSYS Mechanical.
Recent efforts to improve the design include simplification of the knuckles' manufacturing process and the mass reduction of our wheel package.
Drivetrain
Drivetrain engineers focus on the continuous variable transmission (CVT), gearbox, driveshaft, axles, and the rear hub.
The CVT’s main focus is to acquire the optimal RPM and speed ratio through tuning which involves proper alignment, springs, cams, and flyweights that are internal components. Current efforts have been focused on research of each variable component; however, testing has been put on pause due to the pandemic. Future plans are to build an at home dynamometer to receive real time data from our engine to formulate concrete results. In addition, we plan to also design a code on MATLAB for virtual tuning of the CVT to then compare with our real results.
The driveshaft's main focus is to withstand a minimum of 10 Horsepower and be lighter than the current 2011-2014 Polaris Ranger 4x4 CV axle. Efforts have been put on pause due to limited engineers and the pandemic.
The gearbox, axle, and rear hub share a similar focus. All need a new perspective on the engineering capabilities, requirements, and optimization. New metal alloys need to be researched for the gears; a new design to increase durability without compromising weight is needed for the rear hub and axle.
Chassis
The chassis is the frame of our ATV that would protect our driver from rollovers. In this area we study different types of materials for a given geometry to provide us with the best possible case to prevent failure while also considering cost and manufacturing. Previous years we have focused on bending strength and impact simulations through FEA analysis on SolidWorks.
Brakes
Brake engineers focus on materials, manufacturing, basic physics, and take into consideration ergonomics. Our main goal is to design a more durable, reusable, and versatile system which should handle the following areas: achieving wheel lock, a stopping time of 2 seconds, and improving brake lines from leakage.
Business
Members focused on the business aspect will need to know a wide variety of topics to compete with 50 other teams in our virtual competition. Such topics include why our team is best suited to be a corporation or a limited liability company (LLC). A plan needs to be in place for how we will be manufacturing and marketing our vehicle to maximize sales and form trusted relationships with our customers. In addition, a good sales and distribution plan is required along with financial projections to report to the BAJA SAE judges.
Social Media
Members focused on social media work to capture team values and share them with the public. They also deal with promoting the club and attracting new members/sponsors.