WORKING WITH SPONSORS TO IMPROVE OUR ENGINEERING SOLUTIONS
As we progress with our designs and start to manufacture our SHU Racing 2019 car, we have continuously relied on the engineering expertise of many companies, regardless of their size and capacity. From large multinationals to UK SMEs, SHU Racing appreciate the knowledge and support that we are gifted when seeking a solution.
BG ENGINEERING
BG Engineering have lent their support to SHU Racing in this 2019 season, after providing quality machined components for the 2018 car.
BG’s expertise in machining, profiling and finishing have resulted in their Lloyds accredited ISO 9001 as well as multiple industry awards. Located near Chesterfield in their 40,000sq ft facility, BG Engineering are centrally located to meet the needs of industry across the country.
SHU Racing will be working with BG Engineering to increase the technical ability of our younger members. The team provide project briefs to the lower level members so that they have the chance to develop components and gain the experience in meeting design goals, as well as working with other team members to ensure their ideas are integrated fully.
By partnering with BG Engineering, we are aiming to progress this learning experience to allow young members to see their parts come to fruition. Allowing our junior engineers to communicate with an external company on the development of a physical component will give them vital experience in business and technical skills and will help them as they seek their future careers.
We’re looking forward to growing our relationship with BG Engineering and the potential they will bring to developing our younger engineers.
CARBON FIBRE TESTING
After we teased our bonding process a few weeks ago, his week the team has been busy testing those Carbon Fibre-to-Aluminium test pieces for our carbon fibre wishbones. The goal was to find the strongest combination of surface finish and bond gap. Samples were tested to breaking point in a tensile load cell to determine the yield strength.
The strongest test piece withstood approximately double the load of the best test piece from last year, a significant improvement which will allow the car to be pushed harder than ever before.
Now our engineers have found the strongest method in tensile loading, the team now aim to perform fatigue testing as well a torque loading. Furthering the range of failure criteria analysis will allow us to optimise the design as the format develops.
METELLI
In order to further our ambition to improve the Design for Assembly (DFA) of the upcoming SHU Racing 2019 car, our engineers have had to seek the right OEM and bespoke components to fulfil this aim. Metelli, an OEM supplier to the automotive sector, have lent their support to the team and helped to identify a suitable Constant Velocity drive joint for the powertrain of the car. The component required specific geometry to enable our designers to remove the need for wire locking – a complex fixing procedure that may not be familiar to our target consumer. We’d like to thank Metelli for helping us with this project.
FIBET
We’ve previously covered the assistance Fibet have provided to our Chassis manager, Martin, with the provision of their dampening bushings. Martin has now carried out his testing for the suitability for the engine bushings and found that a less stiff (softer) material created the necessary isolation.
Fibet are now are primary bushing supplier as we aim to correctly isolate components such as the fuel tank and radiator. Fibet have expressed their excitement for working with our academic team – its great to see this passion for helping student lead projects.
