SteveWalker
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| posted on 23/6/11 at 08:49 PM |
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Caterham carbon fibre wishbone
There was an exhibition at work today - suppliers and prospective suppliers to our industry. For no apparent reason one of them had a Caterham
wishbone on the stand and cutaway sections too. The thing seemed to be formed from three carbon-fibre tubes with some form of foamed type interior and
three machined alloy castings that were hollow with internal ribs. The thing seemed to weigh 2/3 of f-all. I was told it was less than 1kg. Impressive
stuff.
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DIY Si
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| posted on 23/6/11 at 09:05 PM |
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Pictures, man, pictures!! 
“Let your plans be dark and as impenetratable as night, and when you move, fall like a thunderbolt.”
Sun Tzu, The Art of War
My new blog: http://spritecave.blogspot.co.uk/
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SteveWalker
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| posted on 23/6/11 at 09:11 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by DIY Si
Pictures, man, pictures!!
If I were to start taking pictures in the office, security would probably descend from far and wide!
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ffrgtm
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| posted on 23/6/11 at 09:18 PM |
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Love that stuff... but I don't know if it's worth the trouble. On my school's fsae car we do a laser deposit titanium upright for
each corner... if you count the labor (that is donated to us) they would be $60,000. Yet we decided that mild steel suspension links are fine.
I'll never forget that f1 race where a driver got a flatspot and the vibrations caused the carbon suspension to literally explode at the fastest
part of the front straight... carbon is some brittle stuff.
I'm having trouble visualizing the hollow a-arm ends with ribbing though...
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ffrgtm
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| posted on 23/6/11 at 09:21 PM |
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btw what industry are you in, defense?
and to make up for the lack of pictures on your part I'll show the uprights we have 
Completely hollow... titanium dust is swirled in a box while a laser melts it to form a 3d shape. Afterwards you just empty the dust that was trapped
through the holes.
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SteveWalker
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| posted on 23/6/11 at 09:51 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by ffrgtm
btw what industry are you in, defense?
Civil nuclear.
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twybrow
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| posted on 23/6/11 at 11:31 PM |
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That sounds like part of the car that Nottingham uni developed for Caterham... I saw the full chassis, and got quite a lot of detail about its
construction. In fact, if you do a search on here, I am sure I posted a load of links to some presentations from the project some time back!
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kendo
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| posted on 24/6/11 at 07:53 AM |
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Strange.
I did some work with Cranfield Uni when I was at Lola for Caterham about 7 years ago, except they were looking at chassis sections. It sounds like
the same material i.e. a dry braided carbon tube around a syntactic foam which is then resin infused and hot cured during which the foam expands to
provide consolidation of the carbon laminates.
Looks like they were putting it about if Nottingham were doing something similar.
I suggested getting away from a spaceframe and doing a one hit moulded monocoque which is what McLaren now do on the new MP4-12c (or what ever it is)
thingy.
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ChrisL
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| posted on 24/6/11 at 12:24 PM |
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I though someone had done a titanium 3D printed Caterham upright that has a honeycomb inner?
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Bare
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| posted on 5/7/11 at 03:13 AM |
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Hey! why not recreate the 1957 Lotus Seven chassis design in Carbonne?
Maybe you could create a Ford Sidevalve engine in Plastic to go along with it?
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b14wrc
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| posted on 25/7/11 at 11:41 AM |
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I was at Cranfield university at the beginning of this year and saw the Caterham chassis parts discussed above. Very impressive as a manufactured
part, but would also question why the design had not evolved and been a complete monocoque.
Apart from the expense, if I had a money no object budget I would experiment with this idea for sure.
20vt powered rear engined locost
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kb58
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| posted on 26/7/11 at 06:58 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by ffrgtm
Love that stuff... but I don't know if it's worth the trouble. On my school's fsae car we do a laser deposit titanium upright for
each corner... if you count the labor (that is donated to us) they would be $60,000. Yet we decided that mild steel suspension links are fine.
At the risk of getting way off topic, I'm always confused by the super high-tech tricks used in FSAE cars. I mean, aren't the cars
supposed to theoretically be a design for an affordable weekend-racer? If so, I don't get using $60,000 parts (that are free to you), attached
to a chassis with brackets milled on 6-axis $300K CNC machines. Is the reasoning that, "if we build a million of these, they'll be
cheap?" Are you allowed to list the prices as what you guys paid for them? If so it seems very misleading as for what it takes to design and
build products.
[Edited on 7/26/11 by kb58]
Mid-engine Locost - http://www.midlana.com
And the book - http://www.lulu.com/shop/kurt-bilinski/midlana/paperback/product-21330662.html
Kimini - a tube-frame, carbon shell, Honda Prelude VTEC mid-engine Mini: http://www.kimini.com
And its book -
http://www.lulu.com/shop/kurt-bilinski/kimini-how-to-design-and-build-a-mid-engine-sports-car-from-scratch/paperback/product-4858803.html
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phelpsa
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| posted on 26/7/11 at 07:18 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by kb58
Aren't the cars supposed to theoretically be a design for an affordable weekend-racer?
Nope. They're supposed to be a place for up and coming automotive engineers to present their skills. If they raise a £100k budget then
that's what they can spend.
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Benonymous
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| posted on 27/7/11 at 03:03 AM |
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In addition to budget, I believe businesses can "sponsor" the build with donations of goods and services.
60,000 for uprights, wooh!
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kb58
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| posted on 27/7/11 at 02:44 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by phelpsa
quote:
Originally posted by kb58
Aren't the cars supposed to theoretically be a design for an affordable weekend-racer?
Nope. They're supposed to be a place for up and coming automotive engineers to present their skills. If they raise a £100k budget then
that's what they can spend.
Ah, understood. Given that, it sure argues for creating outlandish designs in the hope that you'll get noticed professionally! I 'spose
the rules box everyone in so tightly that it keeps a lid on what's possible.
Mid-engine Locost - http://www.midlana.com
And the book - http://www.lulu.com/shop/kurt-bilinski/midlana/paperback/product-21330662.html
Kimini - a tube-frame, carbon shell, Honda Prelude VTEC mid-engine Mini: http://www.kimini.com
And its book -
http://www.lulu.com/shop/kurt-bilinski/kimini-how-to-design-and-build-a-mid-engine-sports-car-from-scratch/paperback/product-4858803.html
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phelpsa
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| posted on 27/7/11 at 03:05 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by kb58
quote:
Originally posted by phelpsa
quote:
Originally posted by kb58
Aren't the cars supposed to theoretically be a design for an affordable weekend-racer?
Nope. They're supposed to be a place for up and coming automotive engineers to present their skills. If they raise a £100k budget then
that's what they can spend.
Ah, understood. Given that, it sure argues for creating outlandish designs in the hope that you'll get noticed professionally! I 'spose
the rules box everyone in so tightly that it keeps a lid on what's possible.
Quite often companies will give their new technology to the teams. These are the people who are going on to design at big automotive companies, if
they are used to working with one technology and know what can be done with it then they are much more likely to implement it in future design. Works
in favour of the team and the company!
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liam.mccaffrey
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| posted on 7/8/11 at 09:23 AM |
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I'm guessing you wouldn't interested in my new range of plywood con rods then
quote:
Originally posted by Bare
Hey! why not recreate the 1957 Lotus Seven chassis design in Carbonne?
Maybe you could create a Ford Sidevalve engine in Plastic to go along with it?
Build Blog
Build Photo Album
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