The end of this semester marks the end of the first year of design and fabricating work on the first Iron Range Engineering vehicle for the SAE Baja competition. A lot of work was put into the design before fabrication could begin. The fall team created an original design on the CAD program SolidWorks. The designs were tested through SolidWorks Finite Element Analysis function to see if they would hold up as expected. In the spring, more analysis was done and some changes were made to the geometry. Elements of the design including bend radii and heights of certain members had to be adjusted to better accommodate the SAE rules and the properties of the metal to be used.
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| Original frame design done for the fall of 2013 |
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| Modified design over spring semester 2014 |
The spring team also made a model using the laser cutter to garner a better understanding of the sizing and positioning of the A-Arms to get the desired behaviors from the front and rear suspensions. The physical model was a good way for the team to experiment with different sizes to see the outcome. The team learned a lot about suspension geometry design and how it could potentially affect the vehicle width, ride height, camber, and other properties.
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| 2 dimensional model made to test camber before suspension design was finalized. |
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| Welding in progress. |
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| Base of the frame near completion. |
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Vehicle at end of spring 2014.
Ready for more design, testing, and fabrication!
The teams over the last year learned a lot about vehicle design and are looking forward to driving and testing to find the points of further improvement before competition in the summer of 2015.
Proofread by: Tyler Wass
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