After putting the mule chassis in its final resting place in the scrap heap for recycling, the crew resumed their construction activities.

Welding the rear swing arm mounting plate was another one of today’s main objectives.  The mounting plate was fabricated at an earlier construction session during the week.  The installation of this part involved welding these brackets to the rear portion of the roll cage chassis.  From the photos below, you can see Evan and Scott going over the dimensions and placement of the brackets before Jim Allore welds them into place.

While Jim is welding and grinding away, Scott and Gord were busy fitting the front suspension parts (control A-arms and piggy back shocks) onto the front suspension brackets.  These brackets were fabricated by Gord and welded to the frame by Jim earlier in the week.

Adrian, meanwhile, was in one of the booth’s grinding down the corners of a chromoly tube to be used later in the frame.  The remainder of the team (Saurabh, Charles, and Evan) were in the lunch room going over some electrical schematics and battery box designs.

Below are some video clips of Jim Allore welding and grinding the rear suspension brackets to the rear of the chassis:

Below are some photos of the Omega Solar team and UA members working in the workshop:

Tags: chassis, Construction

The final build of the day was by far the most critical.  The motor mount is a plate that interfaces the solar car’s electric motor with the rear swing arm.  As a result, the tolerances for welding it in place are very small.

The motor mount plates (we have several) were designed by Evan and fabricated at a machine shop at OPG, Darlington (courtesy of Michael Battye, UA Local 463 member).  From the videos below, you can see that Dan and Jim are taking their time welding the mount in place.  The final welds will be done during Monday’s construction session.

At the end today’s build, the swing arm (with a motor mount) was connected to the swing arm mounting brackets (see photos below) that were welded on earlier.  Overall, today’s construction session was eventful with the visits from Durham College and UOIT Administration and members of UA Local 463.

Saurabh and Evan have completed a design of what the final Omega Solar race car’s exterior will look like and will fine tune it through out the week.  The design will be handed over to Tyler, who will then create the 3D models designated for our current roll cage chassis and components.

Charles and Evan worked together to determine the size of the battery box and placement locations.  Based on their discussions, Evan will construction a plastic prototpe that can be placed inside the roll cage chassis.   Charles also went over the solar panel layout for the surface solar array with Saurabh.

Gord visited Durmac, and came back with some bronze metal which he plans to machine into bushings for the suspension this week.

By the end of the week, the Omega Solar Team plans to have the motor operational and have a free standing roll cage chassis.  The electrical team will also join the mechanical team on Saturday construction sessions.

Here are some videos (in 2 parts) of Jim and Dan welding the motor mount to the swing arm:

In the video box below, be sure to click on HQ (high quality) to see all the fine details!

Below are some photos of Jim and Dan welding on the motor mount to the swing arm and some views of the roll cage chassis at the end of today’s construction session:

Tags: chassis, Construction

Today’s build team consisted of Adrian and Gord from Omega Solar and Jim Allore and Garth Cochrane from the UA Local 463.

There was little construction to be done today.  The crew’s main objective for this build session was to install the cut sheet metal panels and to determine the installation and fabrication of the suspension mounting brackets.

Gord and Adrian spent their day at the workshop cutting and shaping the sheet metal panels.  They also helped Jim Allore to weld the panels to the roll cage chassis.

Evan had already designed mounts for the swing arm and the motor and he needed these mounts to be machined.  Michael Battye generously stepped in and offered to have the parts machined at Black & McDonald’s machine shop at OPG Darlington.  The design had to be modified since the materials had changed.  The previous mount design was based on aluminum which would be difficult to weld to our existing roll cage that is made from a dissimilar metal (chromoly).  The modified design will be made from steel instead.  These fabricated parts are expected to be delivered by the weekend for Monday night’s construction.

Below are some photos of the day’s construction:

Tags: chassis, Construction

Today’s build team consisted of Evan, Adrian, and Gord from Omega Solar and Garth Cochran from UA Local 463.

Gord and Adrian performed a mock suspension layout by holding the assembled front and rear suspension pieces in place to help visualize the final mounting locations on the roll cage chassis.  They also held the shocks in place to determine the forces that may be acting on the individual components in the suspension.

Previously, Gord had assembled the suspension parts before bringing them to the shop.  Today, Evan needed to take one side completely apart to get photos of the individual pieces and to take some measurements for his CAD model.  Gord and Evan also noted that there was a small problem with the parts order where duplicate parts were ordered (ball joints) and some parts were missing (spring seats for the rear shock, bolts to bolt the calipers on the spindles).   The two of them will negotiate with the supplier to exchange the duplicate parts for those that were missing.

Garth Cochran also presented the team with large banners showing the relationship between the UA Local 463 and the Omega Solar Race Car Team.  The banner is going to be used as promotion material to showcase the solar car at the Future Building interactive three-day exhibition in Bowmanville where 7,000-10,000 high school students normally attend!

The team will need to make arrangements to move the car for April 7th.  We would need to determine the type of transportation required based on the build status of the car by the end of March.

With the work done today, the roll cage construction is completed to 95% with the welding in the suspension pickups and the fabricated sheet metal to the chassis still remaining.

Below are some photos of the day’s construction:

Tags: chassis, Construction

Today we had Clive Waugh who is the Director of Leadership Gifts from UOIT visit the workshop at UA Local 463.  Gord picked up and assembled the suspension parts from UOIT last night and brought them with him to the workshop this morning.

Scott and Gord spent their day placing the front suspension parts on the chassis to get an idea of where to place the mounting brackets on the front part of the cage.

Tags: chassis, Construction

Today’s construction team consisted of Evan, Saurabh, Adrian, Scott, Gord and Sadain from Omega Solar and Jim Allore and Garth Cochran from UA Local 463.

The materials (extra chromoly tube and sheet metal) finally arrived yesterday.  There was a lot of welding at today’s build.  Jim Allore and Gord were busy welding the prepped bars from Saturday’s construction.  The masking tape that once held the roll cage together was now replaced by a hot beed of metal!

Scott and Sadain spent most of their night planning out what areas in the chassis were going to be covered with sheet metal which will be welded into place by Jim Allore at a later date.

With the extra chromoly tube onsite, Gord and Adrian were busy fabricating the pipes so that Jim could weld them the chassis.

The suspension parts also arrived today at UOIT!  Gord will pick up the suspension parts and drop them off later this week.  At the end of the build night, there was still some metals that needed to be prepped for welding at Saturday’s construction.  Scott and Gord will come into the shop on Friday to continue where they left off tonight.

Saurabh and Evan stayed in the lunch room and continued their planning of the solar car design.

Here’s a short video clib of Adrian grinding a piece of chromoly tubing for the roll cage:

In this video clip, Jim Allore and Gord are welding a member of the roll cage:

A video clip with a walk around the shop showing Adrian and Scott grinding pipes. Mr. Allore and Gord are welding members onto the chassis by TIG:

Below are some photos of the day’s construction:

Tags: chassis, Construction

Today’s construction team consisted of Evan, Saurabh, Adrian, Scott and Gord from Omega Solar and Garth Cochran from UA Local 463.

There is general excitement in the atmosphere as the team finally sees the final roll cage slowly coming to life and the arrival of the front and rear suspension components of the solar car.

The final pieces of the roll cage was prepped today and ready for Jim Allore to weld them into place during his next visit.   The construction crew (Gord, Scott and Adrian) spent their day in the workshop grinding down bars of the roll cage to the correct angles in preparation for Jim Allore to weld them into place.  Until then, the bars were structurally held to the roll cage by masking tape and clamps (can see Gord taping in the photos below).

Meanwhile, Evan and Saurabh were in the lunch room planning the battery box design and how it will be mechanically incorporated into the car design.  They concluded that their design will consist of batteries that will be spaced apart by 1mm in order to allow for adequate airflow and discussed potential materials of construction (such as kevlar and fibre glass) of the final battery box.

Here’s a video walk around of the UA Local 463 workshop and a 360 visual of the roll cage.  In the video, Gord is in the first booth filing, Scott is in the next booth grinding, and Adrian is taking some measurements as to where the motor controller is to be placed.

Below are some photos of the day’s construction:

Tags: chassis, Construction

The build crew today consisted of Evan, Adrian, Scott, and Gord from Omega Solar and Jim Allore, Garth Cochrane, and Dan Martel from UA Local 463.

Today, the boys completed the fabrication of the rear swing arm which included welding two individual pieces that were shaped earlier to make it one piece.

Adrian, Scott and Gord began the fabrication of the pipes to close in the foot box and the area that is behind the driver’s main roll hoop.  They also grinded and cut chromoly tubing that will eventually be put in place and welded to the main roll cage and cleaned up the welds made by Jim Allore by filing away extra slag and buffing the welds.

Below are some photos of the day’s construction:

Tags: chassis, Construction

Today, Evan and Adrian were at the workshop and were accompanied by Jim Allore, Garth Cochran, and Dan Martel from UA Local 463.

The build team began assembling the frame of the roll cage by putting the lower front part of the foot box on the main side rails.  Adrian fabricated the main section which is to be attached to the back end, near the rear suspension mounting point.  This was later attached to the side rails.

Adrian and Dan, helped Jim to weld the front small roll hoop in place and also attached the front foot box to the side rails.

The rear swing arm, which was partially fabricated a few days earlier, was completed tonight on the shop floor.  This piece is waiting for final finishing that includes cutting it to length and putting the head pipe on.

Below are some photos from the day’s construction:

Tags: chassis, Construction

Today we had new-comers Sadain and Kirshan from UOIT and Michael Battye and Jim Allore from UA Local 463 come out for tonight’s construction.

Sadain was helping Gord in bending some chromoly tubes with the pipe bender on loan from Michael Battye.  However, they had some technical difficulties where they laid down the pipe bender on its side (was in the pipe bender’s instruction manual) and the chain came off and broke the idler.  They spent about an hour taking apart the pipe bender and assessing the situation with Mr. Battye and they determined that they needed some fuses and a few bolts to rectify the problem.

Mr. Allore has volunteered his time to help us weld the final roll cage.  Adrian assisted Mr. Allore in welding and also prepped more metal for the final chassis.

Kirshan is from the Electrical Team of the Omega Solar Team and worked on getting some electrical specifications to Evan for the mechanical and electrical integration in the final car design.

Evan was also able to get a quote from a local company, Spoiled Sports, for the suspension parts off a Polaris Outlaw Race ATV.  Spoiled Sports was kind enough to give us a discount and were a pleasure to deal with!

Below are some photos of tonight’s construction:

Tags: chassis, Construction

For today’s construction, the construction crew (Evan, Gord, and Adrian) had to prepare the metal chromoly tubes to be welded into a roll cage.  They prepped the chromoly tubes for different parts of the solar car chassis by cutting and grinding them down to the proper dimensions and angles.   The crew also started bending the chromoly tubing into the final shapes.  At the end of the construction day, they got the lower bars for the roll cage, the end of the foot box and the main roll hoop material ready for welding.

Tags: chassis, Construction

Today was the first day of construction at UA Local 463 of the solar car chassis. Gord, Evan, Bikram, Adrian and Saurabh were at UA’s workshop in full gear and ready to work! Today’s objective was to learn how to operate a mandrel pipe bender which was on loan from UA member Michael Battye. The boys practiced on several pieces of metal conduit pipe before getting their hands dirty with the real chromoly pipes that will be used in the final solar car chassis.

The design of the solar car chassis is such that the angle of the bends need to be precise and accurate.  At first, Bikram and Gord had troubles with the angles of the top hoop because they didn’t know where the pipe bender was putting the centre of the bigger roll hoop.   However, Bikram and Gord were dedicated to mastering the correct way to bend the metal conduit pipes to the right angles and they did just that after several practice attempts.

Meanwhile, Saurabh, Evan, and Adrian were busy planning the future build and design of the solar car’s suspension systems.  In the end, it was decided that we are going to use the parts from the front suspension of a race Polaris ATV Outlaw.

Here’s a video of Garth directing Bikram and Gord on how to use the pipe bender:

Here are some photos of the guys getting their hands dirty with construction and planning the rest of the design work:

Tags: chassis, Construction